An Iraqi soldier patrols in the street near al-Nuri mosque in the Old City of Mosul on June 29, 2017. Iraqi army recaptured Mosul's historical al-Nuri mosque and its leaning minaret on June 29. Built in 1172 A.D. and located at the heart of Mosul's Old City, al-Nuri mosque and its famous leaning minaret are considered as landmark building of Mosul, but it was destroyed by Islamic State militants on June 21.(Xinhua/Wei Yudong)
MOSUL, Iraq, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi government forces battling Islamic State (IS) militants on Thursday retook control of Mosul's historical al-Nuri mosque and a nearby neighborhood in the old city in the western side of Mosul, the Iraqi military said.
"The Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces drove out the extremist IS militants from al-Nuri mosque and its leaning al-Hadbaa minaret, in addition to the adjacent Sarijkhanah neighborhood in the heart of Mosul's old city center," Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a brief statement.
On June 21, the extremist IS group bombed al-Nuri mosque, as Iraqi forces were pushing closer toward the mosque and the surrounding area, amid fierce house-to-house battles in some nearby alleys.
The mosque was built in 1172 A.D. with its famous leaning minaret, which gave the city its nickname "al-Hadbaa" or "the hunchback."
It was the place where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the cross-border "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria in his sole public appearance in July 2014.
A few hours after the bombing of the mosque, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said "blowing up the al-Nuri mosque and the al-Hadba minaret is an official declaration of defeat by the Islamic State."
The day after the bombing, Abadi pledged, in a press conference, to rebuild the mosque and its minaret and other archaeological sites that were destroyed by the terrorist group such as Nimrud and Hattra in Iraq's Nineveh province.
A JOC statement said Tuesday that until Tuesday evening, the troops liberated some 50 percent of the old city in the western side of Mosul.
The CTS forces, federal police and the interior ministry's special forces, known as Rapid Response, have also been fighting inside the old city, but the troops are making slow progress due to the stiff resistance of IS militants and a large number of roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings, in addition to IS snipers who took positions in the buildings and narrow alleys of heavily-populated neighborhoods.
According to recent UN reports, some 100,000 civilians are still trapped in the IS-held areas in the old city center and the adjacent al-Shifaa neighborhood. The extremist group is using the civilians as human shields.
Mosul, 400 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
