The historic al Nuri mosque has been reopened in the heart of Mosul’s Old City in Iraq, eight years after it was destroyed by Islamic State (IS) militants.
The mosque was where then-IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared the so-called “caliphate” by delivering a Friday sermon and leading prayers in 2014.
Three years later, IS later destroyed the site by detonating explosives as it faced defeat in a battle with Iraqi military forces for control of Mosul.
The leaning al Hadba minaret of the mosque had stood as a famous landmark for 850 years before the blasts.
However UNESCO – the UN’s scientific, educational and cultural organisation – later worked alongside Iraqi heritage and Sunni religious authorities to reconstruct the minaret using traditional techniques and materials salvaged from the rubble.
UNESCO raised $115m (£85m) for the reconstruction project, with large shares coming from the United Arab Emirates and the European Union.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani, who presided over the official reopening of the mosque on Monday, said the site’s reconstruction “will remain a milestone, reminding all enemies of the heroism of Iraqis, their defence of their land, and their rebuilding of everything destroyed by those who want to obscure the truth”.
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“We will continue our support for culture, and efforts to highlight Iraqi antiquities, as a social necessity, a gateway to our country for the world, an opportunity for sustainable development, and a space for youth to innovate,” he said.
At its peak, IS ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom in Iraq and Syria and was notorious for its brutality.
It beheaded civilians and enslaved and raped thousands of women from the Yazidi community, one of Iraq’s oldest religious minorities.
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In addition to the mosque, war-damaged churches were rebuilt as part of the reconstruction project, aiming to preserve the heritage of the city’s shrinking Christian population.
Mr Sudani said Mosul embraces all of its communities and “embodies all the characteristics of Iraq’s diverse society”.
UN investigators have said IS militants committed war crimes against Christians in Iraq, including seizing their property, engaging in sexual violence, enslavement, forced conversions and destruction of cultural and religious sites.
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Most of Mosul’s small population of Christians fled when IS launched its offensive in 2014.
In 2003, Mosul’s Christian population stood at around 50,000. Now, fewer than 20 Christian families remain as permanent residents in the city, although some who resettled in the semi-autonomous Kurdish area of northern Iraq still return to Mosul for church services.
The reconstruction project in Mosul could serve as a model for restoring other cultural sites in war-torn areas – including neighbouring Syria, which is starting to emerge from nearly 14 years of civil war after the fall of former president Bashar Assad last year.
