But shortly after, the United States Central Command issued a statement bluntly accusing the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, of destroying the mosque. “As our Iraqi Security Force partners closed in on the Al Nuri mosque, ISIS destroyed one of Mosul and Iraq’s great treasures,” Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin, the American commander for the operation, said in the statement. It was one of the few times that civilians ever confronted Islamic State fighters in the city. Throughout the territory it controls, the Islamic State has routinely used mosques for battlefield purposes. “ISIS destroyed everything.

Source: New York Times June 21, 2017 19:54 UTC