RantCrush Top 5: June 22, 2017

Last night, the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul was destroyed in an explosion. Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said ISIS blew up the historically significant mosque as an admission that the group is defeated. The extremist group seized Mosul in the summer of 2014 and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who Russia claims to have killed this week, declared his leadership of a new Islamic caliphate in the al-Nuri mosque. A former government adviser, Hisham al-Hashimi, said ISIS was aware that Iraqi forces were closing in on them. “They blew it up because they did not want the place where they announced the caliphate from to be the place where the Iraqi military announces its victory over them,” he said.

Al-Nuri Mosque and AlHadba Minaret in #Mosul have been destroyed.. 8 centuries of civilisation and beauty brutally destroyed.. in Ramadhan pic.twitter.com/8znmFzubpY

— Mina Al-Oraibi (@AlOraibi) June 21, 2017

Construction of the mosque started in 1172 and the building carried enormous religious and historical significance. The bombing also occurred on one of the holiest dates in the Islamic calendar. “This is a crime against the people of Mosul and all of Iraq, and is an example of why this brutal organization must be annihilated,” said Maj Gen Joseph Martin, who is leading the U.S. coalition.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.