Iraq’s military accused IS of planting explosives on the website and blowing it up.
A United Nations company stated it has found 5 bombs in a wall of Mosul’s iconic Al-Nuri mosque, planted years in the past by Islamic State group jihadists, throughout restoration work within the northern Iraqi metropolis.
5 “large-scale explosive gadgets, designed to set off a large destruction of the positioning,” have been discovered within the southern wall of the prayer corridor on Tuesday by the UNESCO staff working on the website, a consultant for the company informed AFP late Friday.
Mosul’s Al-Nuri mosque and the adjoining leaning minaret nicknamed Al-Hadba or the “hunchback”, which dates from the twelfth century, have been destroyed in the course of the battle to retake town from IS.
Iraq’s military accused IS, which occupied Mosul for 3 years, of planting explosives on the website and blowing it up.
UNESCO, the UN cultural company, has been working to revive the mosque and different architectural heritage websites within the metropolis, a lot of it lowered to rubble within the battle to retake it in 2017.
“The Iraqi armed forces instantly secured the world and the scenario is now totally underneath management,” UNESCO added.
One bomb was eliminated, however 4 different 1.5-kilogram (3.3-pound) gadgets “stay related to one another” and are anticipated to be cleared within the coming days, it stated.
‘Advanced manufacturing’
“These explosive gadgets have been hidden inside a wall, which was specifically rebuilt round them: it explains why they might not be found when the positioning was cleared by Iraqi forces” in 2020, the company stated.
Iraqi Normal Tahseen al-Khafaji, spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command of varied Iraqi forces, confirmed the invention of “a number of explosive gadgets from ISIS jihadists in Al-Nuri mosque.”
He stated provincial deminers requested assist from the Defence Ministry in Baghdad to defuse the remaining munitions due to their “advanced manufacturing”.
Building work has been suspended on the website till the bombs are eliminated.
It was from Al-Nuri mosque that Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the then-leader of IS, proclaimed the institution of the group’s “caliphate” in July 2014.
The jihadists took over giant swathes of territory in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, which they dominated with brutality.
Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition drove IS out of Mosul in 2017.
The Al-Nuri mosque derives its identify from Nureddine al-Zinki, the unifier of Syria who additionally reigned for a time over Mosul and ordered its development in 1172.
It was destroyed and rebuilt in 1942 in a renovation challenge, with solely the traditional minaret remaining from the unique construction.
The present restoration of Al-Nuri, largely funded by the United Arab Emirates, continues to be anticipated to be accomplished in December 2024.
This, stated UNESCO, will lastly erase “the stigma” of IS occupation.
The minaret — which will likely be reconstructed at a slant upon the request of locals — is being rebuilt with 45,000 of the unique bricks saved from the rubble, solely a 3rd of the unique construction.
The bomb scare was not the primary shock discovery at Al-Nuri. In January 2022, restoration groups unearthed an underground prayer room from the unique twelfth century constructing.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
