MOSUL/ERBIL - After eight months of grinding urban warfare, Iraqi government troops on Thursday captured the ruined mosque in Mosul from where Islamic State proclaimed its self-styled caliphate three years ago, the Iraqi military said. Seizing the 850 year-old Grand al-Nuri Mosque hands a symbolic victory to the Iraqi forces who have been battling for more than eight month to recapture Mosul, the northern city that served as Islamic State`s de facto capital in Iraq.
Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declares the end of the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate following the capture of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul.