Iraq’s famed ‘hunchback’ of Mosul rebuilt brick by brick

Iraq’s famed ‘hunchback’ of Mosul rebuilt brick by brick
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Attendees arrive for a UNESCO ceremony to announce the end of restoration work on the leaning Al-Hadba minaret of the historic Great Mosque of Al-Nuri on February 5, 2025, as part of ongoing reconstruction projects of old Mosul that was damaged during the fight with the Daesh group. (AFP)
Iraq’s famed ‘hunchback’ of Mosul rebuilt brick by brick
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Eighty percent of Mosul’s old city was destroyed in the fight against Daesh, and more than 12,000 tons of rubble was removed for a UNESCO restoration project, which included the famous Al-Hadba or “hunchback” leaning minaret and its historic Al-Nuri Mosque, Al-Tahira and Our Lady of the Hour churches, and 124 heritage houses. (AFP)
Iraq’s famed ‘hunchback’ of Mosul rebuilt brick by brick
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Builders work on the ongoing reconstruction of the historic Great Mosque of Al-Nuri, whose “Al-Hadba” leaning minaret (C) which dates back to the 12th century was destroyed by Daesh group fighters, in Mosul’s old city in northern Iraq on February 3, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 06 February 2025
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Iraq’s famed ‘hunchback’ of Mosul rebuilt brick by brick

Iraq’s famed ‘hunchback’ of Mosul rebuilt brick by brick
  • The mosque and minaret were destroyed in June 2017 during the battle to oust IS from Mosul
  • Minaret and mosque are the latest landmarks in Mosul to be restored by United Nations heritage body UNESCO

Mosul: The leaning minaret of Mosul in northern Iraq has been restored using its original brickwork, years after it was reduced to rubble under Daesh group rule.
The Al-Hadba or “hunchback” minaret is part of the historic Al-Nuri Mosque from where former IS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in July 2014 declared his “caliphate” that committed atrocities across swathes of both Syria and Iraq.
The mosque and minaret were destroyed in June 2017 during the battle to oust Daesh from Mosul, and Iraq’s authorities accused the jihadists of planting explosives before their withdrawal.
The minaret and mosque are the latest landmarks in Mosul to be restored by United Nations heritage body UNESCO, whose teams have worked for five years to revive several sites there.
The Al-Hadba minaret of today is an exact replica of the old one, “built with the same bricks,” said Abdullah Mahmoud of the Iraqi department of antiquities.
“Al-Hadba is our identity, and by restoring it, the identity of the city has been reclaimed.”
The restored minaret’s tilt has been retained at 160 centimeters (63 inches), just as it was in the 1960s.
However, engineers have reinforced the foundations so it no longer leans quite so precariously, as it began to do gradually after being built in the 12th century.
“The minaret’s body from the inside needed 96,000 new bricks,” Mahmoud said.
“But for the exterior we used 26,000 old bricks” to preserve its historical legacy.
’Massive change’
Days before work was completed, hundreds of workers put the finishing touches to Al-Nuri’s columns, dome and yard.
Mahmoud said the mihrab, a niche indicating the direction of Makkah, has been largely repaired using its original stones.
But the minbar, from where sermons are delivered, has lost most of its original pieces.
Across the street, Imad Zaki, a former muezzin at the mosque, said: “Every day I stand here for an hour to watch as they are restored to their original state.”
“Today one can feel the spirituality. It’s as if our souls have finally found peace,” added the 52-year-old, wearing a long traditional Iraqi abaya, or robe.
Eighty percent of Mosul’s old city was destroyed in the fight against IS, and more than 12,000 tons of rubble was removed for the UNESCO restoration project, which also included Al-Tahira and Our Lady of the Hour churches and 124 heritage houses.
The Al-Tahira Church, dating from 1862, has been rebuilt with its arcades, embellished pillars and stained-glass windows.
During restoration, workers discovered an underground cellar and large jars once used for wine. It now has a glass ceiling so visitors can look inside.
Maria Acetoso, senior project manager at UNESCO Iraq, said the project aimed “to work in parallel on meaningful monuments for the city and also to bring life back” to Mosul.
“When I arrived here in 2019 it looked like a ghost city,” Acetoso said. “In five years plus, there has been a massive change.”
In Mosul on Wednesday, UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay hailed her team’s efforts and said on that the renovation had allowed “the identity of the city” to return.
Scars of battle
After IS was defeated, life returned to the city’s streets, where the chatter of patrons in small cafes blended with the clatter of construction work at the mosque.
In the coming weeks, Iraqi authorities will inaugurate the restored landmarks.
But Mosul still bears scars from the ferocious fight against IS.
Tucked away in narrow old city alleyways are ruined houses. Some bear the word “safe” scrawled in red on walls, signalling that they that have been cleared of explosives.
The crumbling walls and shattered windows tell tales of displacement. Their original owners, mostly Christian, have yet to return.
Mohammed Kassem, 59, came back to the old city a few years ago, to a new house as his former home was just debris.
Mosul still “needs a great deal” of work before it is back to normal, he said.
“It needs its former residents... the Christians to come back. This is their place,” Kassem added.
Across the street from Al-Nuri Mosque, Saad Mohammed, 65, said he hoped the restoration efforts will attract visitors to Mosul, although he still feels sad because of what it has lost.
But he couldn’t help but smile when he looked up at the minaret from his little shop.
“We opened the window once and saw the black IS flag on top of the minaret. Then we opened it again and the minaret was gone,” said Mohammed, who never left Mosul, even at the height of the fighting.
“Today the minaret has risen again, alongside the mosque and the churches. Now we feel safe,” he said.


Israel hits Gaza with new airstrikes that kill at least 200 after truce talks stall

Israel hits Gaza with new airstrikes that kill at least 200 after truce talks stall
Updated 12 sec ago
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Israel hits Gaza with new airstrikes that kill at least 200 after truce talks stall

Israel hits Gaza with new airstrikes that kill at least 200 after truce talks stall
  • Hamas official accused Israel of unilaterally overturning the ceasefire deal

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, saying it was striking dozens of Hamas targets in its heaviest assault in the territory since a ceasefire took effect in January. Palestinian officials reported at least 200 deaths.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the strikes because of a lack of progress in talks to extend the ceasefire. Officials said the operation was open-ended and was expected to expand. The White House said it had been consulted and voiced support for Israel’s actions.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Netanyahu’s office said.

The surprise attack shattered a period of relative calm during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and raised the prospect of a full return to fighting in a 17-month war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza. It also raised questions about the fate of the roughly two dozen Israeli hostages held by Hamas who are believed to still be alive.

Hamas accused Netanyahu of upending the ceasefire agreement and exposing the hostages “to an unknown fate.” In a statement, it called on mediators to hold Israel “fully responsible for violating and overturning the agreement.”

In the southern city of Khan Younis, Associated Press reporters saw explosions and plumes of smoke. Ambulances brought wounded people to Nasser Hospital, where patients lay on the floor, some screaming. A young boy sat with a bandage around his head as a health worker checked for more injuries, a young girl cried as her bloody arm was bandaged.

Many Palestinians said they had expected a return to war when talks over the second phase of the ceasefire did not begin as scheduled in early February. Israel instead embraced an alternative proposal and cut off all shipments of food, fuel and other aid to the territory’s 2 million Palestinians to try to pressure Hamas to accept it.

“Nobody wants to fight,” Palestinian resident Nidal Alzaanin said by phone from Gaza City. “Everyone is still suffering from the previous months,” he said.

US backs Israel and blames Hamas

The White House sought to blame Hamas for the renewed fighting. National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said the militant group “could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.”

US envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been leading mediation efforts along with Egypt and Qatar, had earlier warned that Hamas must release living hostages immediately “or pay a severe price.”

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the unfolding operation, said Israel was striking Hamas’ military, leaders and infrastructure and planned to expand the operation beyond air attacks. The official accused Hamas of attempting to rebuild and plan new attacks. Hamas militants and security forces quickly returned to the streets in recent weeks after the ceasefire went into effect.

Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said the “gates of hell will open in Gaza” if the hostages aren’t released. “We will not stop fighting until all of our hostages are home and we have achieved all of the war goals,” he said.

Explosions could be heard throughout Gaza. Khalil Degran, a spokesman for the Health Ministry based at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, said at least 200 people had been killed. The territory’s civil defense agency said its crews were having a difficult time carrying out rescue efforts because various areas were being targeted simultaneously.

Talks on a second phase of the ceasefire had stalled

The strikes came two months after a ceasefire was reached to pause the war. Over six weeks, Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight more in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in a first phase of the ceasefire.

But since that ceasefire ended two weeks ago, the sides have not been able to agree on a way forward with a second phase aimed at releasing the 59 remaining hostages, 35 of whom are believed to be dead, and ending the war altogether.

Hamas has demanded an end to the war and full withdrawal of Israeli troops in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages. Israel says it will not end the war until it destroys Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and frees all hostages.

Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to resume the war.

“This comes after Hamas repeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all offers it received from the US presidential envoy, Steve Witkoff, and from the mediators,” Netanyahu’s office said early Tuesday.

Taher Nunu, a Hamas official, criticized the Israeli attacks. “The international community faces a moral test: either it allows the return of the crimes committed by the occupation army or it enforces a commitment to ending the aggression and war against innocent people in Gaza,” he said.

Gaza already in a humanitarian crisis

The war erupted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. Most have been released in ceasefires or other deals, with Israeli forces rescuing only eight and recovering dozens of bodies.

Israel responded with a military offensive that killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced an estimated 90 percent of Gaza’s population. The territory’s Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and militants, but says over half of the dead have been women and children.

The ceasefire had brought some relief to Gaza and allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to resume to what remained of their homes.

A renewed Israeli ground offensive could also be especially deadly now that so many Palestinian civilians have returned home. Before the ceasefire, civilians were largely concentrated in tent camps meant to provide relative safety from the fighting.

The return to fighting could also worsen deep internal fissures inside Israel over the fate of the remaining hostages. Many of the hostages released by Hamas returned emaciated and malnourished, putting heavy pressure on the government to extend the ceasefire.

The released hostages have repeatedly implored the government to press ahead with the ceasefire to return all remaining hostages, and tens of thousands of Israelis have taken part in mass demonstrations calling for a ceasefire and return of all hostages.


North Korea condemns US strikes against Yemen, KCNA says

North Korea condemns US strikes against Yemen, KCNA says
Updated 3 min 18 sec ago
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North Korea condemns US strikes against Yemen, KCNA says

North Korea condemns US strikes against Yemen, KCNA says
  • The large-scale US strikes were launched by President Donald Trump last week targeting Iran-aligned Houthis
  • Houthi-run health ministry said the strikes killed at least 53 people including women and children
SEOUL: North Korea condemned recent US strikes on Yemen as an act violating international law and a country’s sovereignty and said such a move could never be justified in any way, the North’s state media quoted on Tuesday its ambassador to Yemen as saying.
The large-scale US strikes were launched by President Donald Trump last week targeting Iran-aligned Houthis over the group’s attacks on Red Sea shipping. The Houthi-run health ministry said the strikes killed at least 53 people including women and children.
The North Korean ambassador, Ma Dong Hui, who the KCNA state news agency said was also Pyongyang’s envoy to Egypt, said Washington “indiscriminately” targeted civilians and property by mobilizing air and navy forces including an aircraft carrier.
“The military attack by the United States is a violent violation of the UN Charter and international law, and is a blatant infringement on the territorial sovereignty of another country that cannot be justified by any means,” Ma said.
“I express grave concern about the illegal and reckless military actions by the United States, which is obsessed with realizing geopolitical ambitions ... and I strongly condemn and reject them.”
The US Defense Department said the strikes hit more than 30 sites and involved fighter jets launched from a carrier in the Red Sea.

Iran-backed Houthis claim third attack on US ships in 48 hours

Iran-backed Houthis claim third attack on US ships in 48 hours
Updated 18 March 2025
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Iran-backed Houthis claim third attack on US ships in 48 hours

Iran-backed Houthis claim third attack on US ships in 48 hours
  • A senior Hamas official told Reuters on Tuesday that Israel is unilaterally ending the Gaza ceasefire agreement

SANAA: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a third attack on an American aircraft carrier group in 48 hours, calling it retaliation for US strikes.
The Houthis said in a Telegram post that they targeted the USS Harry S. Truman carrier group with missiles and drones, making the attack the “third in the past 48 hours” in the northern Red Sea.
 

 


Tunisia says 612 migrants rescued, 18 bodies recovered at sea

Tunisia says 612 migrants rescued, 18 bodies recovered at sea
Updated 18 March 2025
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Tunisia says 612 migrants rescued, 18 bodies recovered at sea

Tunisia says 612 migrants rescued, 18 bodies recovered at sea
  • Tunisia has in recent years become a key departure point in north Africa for migrants making the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing in hopes of reaching a better life in Europe

TUNIS: Tunisia’s national guard said on Monday its forces had rescued 612 migrants and recovered the bodies of 18 others in several operations overnight off the country’s Mediterranean coast.
Sharing images of some of those rescued, including women and children, after their boats capsized, the force said they were all migrants from sub-Saharan African countries attempting to cross the sea to Europe.
The survivors were rescued in several operations in the Sfax region to the east of the center of the country after their boats capsized or broke down, according to the national guard.
Exhausted people including women and children, some of whom appear to be dead, can be seen in the images. Some are pictured clinging on to large buoys.
In another image, a woman struggles to hoist a child, his body rigid and apparently lifeless, aboard the rescue boat.
Maritime guard members “succeeded in thwarting several separate attempts to reach Europe clandestinely,” the national guard said in a press release.
Along with Libya, Tunisia has in recent years become a key departure point in north Africa for migrants making the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing in hopes of reaching a better life in Europe.
Its coastline in some places lies fewer than 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the Italian island of Lampedusa, often their first port of call.
Each year, tens of thousands of people attempt to make the crossing.


Rights advocates urge Morocco to annul activist’s prison term

Fouad Abdelmoumni. (AFP file photo)
Fouad Abdelmoumni. (AFP file photo)
Updated 18 March 2025
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Rights advocates urge Morocco to annul activist’s prison term

Fouad Abdelmoumni. (AFP file photo)
  • The signatories said the sentence was part of a “repressive policy” by governments across the region, “aimed at silencing any voices advocating for freedom of expression, respect for human rights and democracy”
  • Prosecutors argued that his statements constituted “allegations harmful to the kingdom’s interests” and went “beyond the limits of freedom of expression, amounting to criminal offenses punishable by law”

TUNIS: Nearly 300 rights advocates and experts from countries in North Africa and France have signed a petition calling on Morocco to free activist Fouad Abdelmoumni, sentenced to jail for “spreading false allegations” online.
Abdelmoumni, a human rights advocate, was sentenced in early March to six months in prison for charges related to a post he had shared on Facebook, alleging that Morocco had spied against France.
A petition, which by Monday has gathered 295 signatures, said that “Abdelmoumni should have been prosecuted under the press code, which does not provide for prison sentences. But he was charged under the penal code.”
He would be taken into custody “if the verdict is upheld” by an appeals court, said the petition shared on Abdelmoumni’s Facebook page.
The signatories said the sentence was part of a “repressive policy” by governments across the region, “aimed at silencing any voices advocating for freedom of expression, respect for human rights and democracy.”
They called for “the annulment of his sentence and the release of all political prisoners held in Morocco and other Maghreb countries.”
The signatories include former Doctors Without Borders president Rony Brauman, French-Tunisian historian Sophie Bessis, and Tunisian activists Mokhat Trifi and Sana Ben Achour.
In his Facebook post last year, Abdelmoumni echoed accusations of Moroccan espionage against France.
Prosecutors argued that his statements constituted “allegations harmful to the kingdom’s interests” and went “beyond the limits of freedom of expression, amounting to criminal offenses punishable by law.”
Abdelmoumni shared the post during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, which had marked a thawing of diplomatic ties between Rabat and Paris after three years of strained relations, partially over the espionage allegations.
In 2021, Morocco was accused of deploying Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to monitor prominent figures including Macron.
The allegations were based on a report by investigative outlet Forbidden Stories and rights group Amnesty International, which Morocco called “baseless and false.”
The spyware, developed by Israeli firm NSO Group, can infiltrate mobile phones, extracting data and activating cameras.