Tears, and Anger, as Militants Destroy Iraq City’s Relics

Tim Arango

 

When the Sunni extremists ruling Mosul destroyed the shrine of a prophet whose story features in the traditions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism — the most important of nearly two dozen marked for destruction by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in the first seven weeks of its reign — small groups of residents gathered to mourn.

“We were crying when they detonated it,” said Abdulmalik Mustafa, a 32-year-old unemployed man who lives near the site, believed to be the tomb of the biblical prophet Jonah, which was razed last week. “We couldn’t believe that the history of Mosul has disappeared. I wanted to die.”

Then rumors swirled that the next goal of the ISIS militants would be toppling the city’s ancient leaning minaret, which is older than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy and is pictured on Iraq’s 10,000-dinar bank note. Residents gathered at the minaret and, according to witnesses, confronted the group’s fighters.

Terror y perversidad jihadista

La vieja e histórica ciudad de Mosul, emplazada en el norte de Irak y al este del río Tigris, que alguna vez fue la capital del imperio asirio, es hoy la tercera ciudad de Irak en términos de población.

Desde el 9 de junio pasado, está en manos de los fanáticos milicianos a los que se denomina jihadistas sunnitas, que responden al presunto califato que ha sido proclamado por Abu Bakr Bagdadi, quien usurpó tanto territorio sirio como iraquí.

After Opening Way to Rebels, Turkey Is Paying Heavy Price

Ben Hubbard

Ceylan Yeginsu

 

HABUR BORDER GATE, Turkey — In normal times, hauling 50,000 pounds of frozen chicken into Iraq is a routine job for Turfan Aydin, a Turkish trucker who has been working the route for years. But the cross-border trade has suddenly all but halted, locked up by the insurgent offensive in Iraq and the kidnapping of 80 Turkish citizens.

Once this border was wide open, as Turkey allowed rebel groups of any stripe easy access to the battlefields in Syria in an effort to topple President Bashar al-Assad. But that created fertile ground in Syria for the development of the Sunni militant group that launched a blitzkrieg in Iraq this month, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.