Iraqi forces recapture iconic Nuri Mosque in Old Mosul

The Iraqi army has recaptured the venue of the iconic Grand al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, with the country’s state TV implying the liberation of the city, which has been under Daesh control since 2014.

“Their fictitious state has fallen,” an Iraqi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, told state TV on Thursday.

Earlier, the Iraqi military announced the news as it continues to gain more advances in Mosul’s Old City.

Shortly after the announcement, the Iraqi state television reported the fall of the “mythical state,” in reference to Daesh’s so-called caliphate.

The TV said the recapture of the mosque means Mosul, as the terror group’s command center, has been liberated, while Iraqi forces are in the middle of a mop-up operation to cleanse the city of remaining Daesh elements.

ISIS terrorists late on June 21 blew up the Grand al-Nuri Mosque and its Hadba (Hunchback) minaret.

Iraqi authorities and officials from the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the terrorists said the destruction of the site, sometimes referred to as Iraq’s Tower of Pisa, is a sign of the extremists’ imminent loss of Mosul.

The Iraqi army forces have besieged the last Daesh positions in the southern areas of Old Mosul and they expect to purge the area of the terrorists by the next few days.