Iraqi forces capture site of Mosul’s blown-up historic mosque — where Islamic State once declared its caliphate

Reporting from MOSUL, Iraq  —  Iraqi forces Thursday captured the compound of a landmark mosque in Mosul that was blown up last week by Islamic State — a hugely symbolic site from where the top Islamic State leader declared a caliphate nearly three years ago.

The advance comes as the Iraqi troops are pushing deeper into the Old City, a densely populated neighborhood west of the Tigris River where the Nouri Mosque with its 12th century Hadba minaret once stood and where Islamic State militants are now making their last stand in what are expected to be the final days of the battle for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.

Iraqi special forces reached the Nuri Mosque compound and took control of the surrounding streets on Thursday afternoon, following a dawn push into the area, Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab Saadi of the elite force told the Associated Press.

Damaged and destroyed houses dot the route Iraqi forces have carved into the congested district — along a landscape of destruction where the stench of rotting bodies rises from under the rubble.

Thursday’s push comes more than a week after Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul’s last Islamic State-held parts of the Old City neighborhood, with its narrow alleyways and dense clusters of homes.

Taking the mosque is a symbolic victory — from its pulpit, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi in July 2014 declared a self-styled Islamic “caliphate,” encompassing territories then held by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Iraqi and coalition officials said Islamic State blew up the mosque complex last week. Islamic State has blamed a U.S. airstrike for the destruction.

After months of fighting, the Islamic State hold in Mosul has shrunk to less than a square mile of territory but the advances have come at considerable cost.

“There are hundreds of bodies under the rubble,” said special forces Maj. Dhia Thamir, deployed inside the Old City. He added that all the bodies along the special forces’ route were of Islamic State fighters.

Special forces Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi acknowledged that some civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery in the fight for the Old City. “Of course there is collateral damage; it is always this way in war,” he said.

“The houses are very old,” he said, referring to the Old City, “so any bombardment causes them to collapse completely.”

Al-Aridi said the clearing of the mosque will likely require specialized engineering teams since the militants have likely rigged the site with explosives.

In Baghdad, state TV declared the capture the Nuri Mosque with an urgent text scroll that said: “The State of Myth Has Fallen.”

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