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Who Blew Up Mosul's Al-Nuri Mosque?

Tradition holds that [Nurettin Zengin] (Nur ad-Din Zangi) the Turkish Atabeg built the mosque in 1172–1173 during the Abbasid Caliphate, shortly before his death.  According to the chronicle of Ibn al-Athir, after Nur ad-Din took control of Mosul he ordered his nephew Fakhr al-Din to build the mosque:

 Minaret 

The mosque was well known for its leaning minaret, known as al-Hadba’ ("the hunchback"). Grattan Geary, a 19th-century traveler, described the minaret's appearance: It is several feet out of the perpendicular, though it starts fair from the ground, and at the top, before putting on its gallery and dome, it regains an erect posture. Its attitude is that of a man bowing.


By June 2017, the Battle of Mosul had progressed to the stage that ISIL-controlled territory in Mosul was limited to the Old City area, which included the mosque. On 21 June 2017, Iraqi government forces reported that the mosque had been blown up by ISIS forces and the blast was indicative of bombs being deliberately placed to bring it down. ISIL's propaganda ministry Amaq claimed an airstrike by the United States is responsible for the destruction, but this claim does not appear to be substantiated by any information.



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