Five large bombs were discovered hidden in the walls of the historic al-Nuri Mosque in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, a remnant of the armed group ISIL’s (ISIS’s) rule over the region.
The mosque – famous for its 12th-century leaning minaret – was destroyed by ISIL in 2017 and has been a focal point of the UN cultural agency UNESCO’s restoration efforts since 2020. The UN agency said five large-scale explosive devices, designed for significant destruction, were found inside the southern wall of the Prayer Hall on Tuesday.
Read more…
Source: Al Jazeera News
Related:
- Twenty Years on, Iraq Bears Scars of US-led Invasion
March 19, 2023
In the lead up to the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, proponents of the war spoke of the Iraqi people as helpless victims of a dictatorial regime. Yet the Iraqi people paid the heaviest price of the invasion. Almost half a million people lost their lives, millions lost homes, and countless civilians suffered abuses by ...
- Iraq: Basra, the city most saturated with landmines worldwide
March 14, 2023
The Directorate for Mine Action (DMA) of the Iraqi Ministry of Environment revealed that Basra came first worldwide as the city with the most landmines. Media Director of the DMA, Mustafa Hamid, explained that the southern Iraqi city of Basra has about 1,200 square kilometers full of landmines, pointing out that areas where landmines are planted ...
- Saddam Hussein fell. Then violence in Iraq spiralled
March 14, 2023
When U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Adel Amer celebrated what he thought marked the end of two decades of war and isolation under sanctions that had brought Iraq and its people to their knees. But it turned out to be just the beginning of another era of conflict and chaos that saw an insurgency, the rise of ...
- Iraq: Four killed, three injured in armed attack in Diyala governorate
March 7, 2023
An Iraqi security source mentioned on Monday that four civilians were killed and three others were wounded in an armed attack that followed an explosion of an improvised explosive device in Diyala governorate in eastern Iraq. The source elaborated that four civilians were killed and three others were wounded after an improvised explosive device targeted a ...
- Former Iraqi Turkmen official killed in Kirkuk
March 3, 2023
There are conflicting reports as to the killing of Ahmed Tahir Ismail, a former Iraqi Turkmen Front official, in Kirkuk today. According to Kirkuk security sources, Ismail was killed by an improvised explosive device at his home. On the other hand, the Turkmen National Movement party announced that Ismail was killed in an explosion in his ...
- Denmark supports explosive hazards management activities in Iraq
January 18, 2023
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Iraq welcomed a contribution of 14 million DKK (over two million USD) from the Danish government, which will assist the Iraqi government to reduce the threat of explosive ordnance impacting civilians and support the development of a sustainable, well-coordinated national mine action sector, according to a press ...
- Iraq: 2 killed, injured in mine explosion in Iraq
January 14, 2023
Two civilians were killed and injured following the explosion of a mine left by ISIL terrorists in the west of Al Anbar province of Iraq. One civilian was killed and another one was injured during the incident, a PMU official announced. Read more… Source: MEHR News Agency
- Iraq: Kurdistan Region records over 30 causalities to mines last year
January 12, 2023
The remains of decades-old explosives in the Kurdistan Region have killed or wounded over 30 people in 2022, according to figures published by the mines’ authority. A total of 24 people were wounded by unexploded mines across Iraq’s Kurdish region last year, mostly in the border areas with neighboring countries that had witnessed numerous battles, including ...
- Iraq reopens Baghdad’s Green Zone to ease traffic jams
January 8, 2023
Iraqi authorities reopened Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Sunday in an attempt to ease traffic jams in the capital after it was closed and reopened several times in recent years. Starting in the early hours of the day, Iraqi authorities removed checkpoints and opened major roads and tunnels that cut through the zone on the ...
- Iraq: Explosion in Erbil Governorate kills two soldiers, injures three
December 22, 2022
Two soldiers were killed and three were injured in an explosion in northern Iraq, Iraqi state news said Thursday. The soldiers were traveling in an army vehicle a day earlier in the Makhmour district when an explosive device detonated, the state Iraqi News Agency reported. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. It was the latest ...
- Iraq: At least nine police killed in blast near Kirkuk
December 18, 2022
At least nine Iraqi federal police officers have been killed in a bomb blast near Iraq’s north-central city of Kirkuk, security sources told news agency. The sources said those killed on Sunday were traveling in a convoy when the bomb struck. The blast took place near the village of Safra, which lies about 30 km (20 miles) ...
- Iraq: Bomb explosion kills three children in Nineveh province
December 17, 2022
A mortar, believed to have been left by the Islamic State (ISIS), exploded to a number of children in Bashiqa town, Nineveh province on Saturday, killing three and injuring another, according to a local official. Rafaat Smo, deputy governor of Nineveh, told Rudaw on Saturday that a number of children played with a mortar in the ...
- Turkish soldier killed by terrorist IED in northern Iraq
December 6, 2022
A Turkish soldier was killed in Türkiye’s anti-terror operation zone in northern Iraq, near the countries’ shared border, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said Monday. Mehmet Duman died after a bomb blast in Türkiye’s Operation Claw-Lock zone, the ministry said in a statement. PKK terrorists placed the improvised explosive device in an area where Turkish forces are ...
- The Government of Italy continues its support to explosive hazards management activities in Iraq
November 23, 2022
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) welcomes an additional contribution of EUR 1,000,000 (approximately USD 999,500) from the Government of Italy, which will support life-saving mine action activities in Iraq. Activities will include delivering sustainable and efficient explosive hazard management and providing technical and advisory support to national mine action authorities. Iraq suffers from various ...
- France Renews its Commitment to Protecting Civilians Impacted by Explosive Ordnance in Iraq
November 15, 2022
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) welcomes the contribution of EUR 500,000 (approximately USD 495,370) from the Government of France, which will support the Government of Iraq in its efforts to protect civilians impacted by the threat of explosive ordnance and enable humanitarian action, peacebuilding and socio-economic development. Legacy landmine contamination and other explosive remnants ...
- Belgium provides an additional EUR 1,000,000 for UNMAS activities in Iraq
November 15, 2022
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Iraq welcomes an additional contribution of EUR 1,000,000 (approximately USD 980K) from the Government of Belgium, which will support the Government of Iraq in protecting civilians impacted by the threat of explosive ordnance and enabling humanitarian action, peacebuilding and socio-economic development. Thirty-seven years of conflicts, with the most ...
- Iraq: Demining agency clears minefields near Choman
November 10, 2022
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal team of Mine Action Agency cleared some minefields in Choman city near the Iraqi-Iranian border on Nov. 9, according to the announcement of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The agency’s demining teams of DE1 and Mechanical in cooperation with Slovenian Enhancing Human Security (ITF), destroyed 22 mines and 20 Unexploded ordnances (UXO) in ...
- Iraq: Two UN employees killed by landmine at explosive ordnance clearance site near Basra
October 24, 2022
Two Iraqi UN employees were killed and a third person injured in an accident on Monday near the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The staff members were part of a team working for the UN’s Mine Action Service (Unmas) at an explosive ordnance clearance site at the Shatt al Arab port. “The incident occurred in the early ...
- Iraq: IED explosion kills Peshmerga officer, wounds seven others
October 19, 2022
In improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in the Garmiyan region of Sulaimani province on Wednesday, at least a Peshmerga officer was killed and seven others were wounded, the Kurdish force announced. The forces were deployed in Tawer Kawa village of Zinana and Palkana in Garmiyan as part of a sweeping anti-ISIS operation while the IEDs struck ...
- Iraq: Car bomb kills PUK counter-terrorism official in Erbil
October 7, 2022
A car exploded in the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil on Friday afternoon, killing the driver and injuring several others. The Region’s counter-terrorism directorate (CTD) said the explosion was due to a “sticky bomb” attached to the vehicle. The explosion occurred in Erbil city’s 32 Park neighborhood and targeted the car of a former Patriotic Union ...
- Iraq: PMF raids an IED factory in Salah al-Din
September 10, 2022
The Popular Mobilization Authority announced the destruction of a laboratory for explosive devices belonging to terrorist gangs, northwest of Salah al-Din. The commission said in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that “the Salah al-Din Operations Command of the Popular Mobilization carried out, on Saturday, a large-scale search and security operation on Salah ...
- Iraq: Australian embassy car hit by IED in Baghdad
August 27, 2022
An improvised explosive device in Baghdad’s Green Zone slightly damaged a vehicle belonging to the Australian embassy in Iraq on Friday, without causing any casualties, a security source said. A multi-car Australian embassy convoy was travelling through the high security Green Zone when the device went off, an Iraqi security source said, declining to be identified. The ...