ISIS militants on Wednesday blew up the Grand al-Nuri Mosque of Mosul and its famous leaning minaret, an Iraqi military statement said, as Iraqi forces seeking to expel the group from the city closed in on the site. "The [ISIS] terror gangs committed another historical crime by blowing up the al-Nuri mosque and its historical al-Hadba minaret," the Iraqi military statement said. The explosions happened as Iraq's elite Counter Terrorism Service units, which have been battling their way through Mosul's Old City, got to within 50 metres of the mosque, the Iraqi military statement said. An Iraqi military spokesman gave the timing of the explosion as 9:35 p.m. local time. Iraqi forces said earlier on Wednesday they had started a push towards the mosque.

Source: CBC News June 22, 2017 00:56 UTC