MOSUL, Iraq, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Sunni extremist militants of the Islamic State (IS) group blew up shrines of two prophets in the militant-seized city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, a provincial official said on Saturday.
"The IS militants on Friday afternoon cordoned off the shrine of Nabi Shiet (Prophet Seth) in the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and blew up the ancient shrine with large amount of explosives," Mohammed Ibrahim, head of the security committee of the provincial council, told Xinhua.
Ibrahim also said that the provincial security committee also received a report which said the IS militants had blew up another shrine of Nabi Younis (Prophet Jonah) in the city on Thursday afternoon. The holy site is believed to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale or great fish in the Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions.
The two shrines are revered in Islam as well as Christianity and Judaism.
The IS group is seeking to create an Islamic caliphate that included parts of Iraq and Syria and has begun imposing hardline of Islamic law (Sharia) in the cities it controls.
The IS, an al-Qaida offshoot, has took control of Iraq's second largest city of Mosul early in June and expanded later their control of a large part of the country's northern and western territories.
The IS triumph in Mosul led the Christian families to flee the city about a week ago after the group issued an ultimatum to Iraqi Christians living there either to convert to Islam, pay a tax named "Jizya", or face death by the sword.
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