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BAGHDAD: Mosul, wrested from the Daesh jihadist group on July 10, is Iraq’s second city and one of its cultural jewels.
The jihadists seized it in a lightning June 2014 offensive that humiliated Iraq’s security forces, who launched their massive operation to retake it in October last year.
Here are some facts about Mosul:
The Mosul area is rich in oil and the city straddles the Tigris River about 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of Baghdad and 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Iraq’s biggest dam.
It has long been a trading hub between Iraq, Syria and Turkey, and its population before used to be a mosaic of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Christians and other minorities.
Muslin, the fine cotton fabric that is one of the city’s best-known products, derives its name from “Mosul.”
The city controls key supply routes in northern Iraq, notably a highway to the border with Syria and its second city of Aleppo.
Mosul’s population, which has fallen from a peak of around two million, now comprises mostly Sunni Arabs, and after Saddam Hussein was defeated in 2003, the jihadist group Al-Qaeda took root there.
On June 10, 2014, fighters from Daesh seized the city. On June 29, the group proclaimed an Islamic “caliphate” that included Mosul, the Syrian city of Raqqa and large areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
The group labelled its project the Daesh, and leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi made his first public appearance on July 5 at Mosul’s famed Great Mosque of Al-Nuri.
Daesh militants turned the city into an urban model for their state, setting school programs, shop opening hours and dress codes. The sale of alcohol and cigarettes was forbidden.
The city’s historic center was dotted with church spires, and it was home to an estimated 35,000 Christians when Daesh arrived. Christians were ordered to convert, pay a special tax, or leave. Almost all fled.
Starting in July 2014, Daesh began to destroy Shiite mosques and sanctuaries, some of which had been richly adorned and stood for centuries.
Militants burned thousands of rare books and manuscripts in the city’s vast museum and smashed priceless statues.
Daesh rigged the Nabi Yunus shrine — revered by both Muslims and Christians as the tomb of Prophet Jonah — with explosives and blew it up. It also destroyed the Prophet Seth shrine.
The Old City of Mosul, on the western side of the river, is also considered of major cultural value.
On June 21, as Iraqi forces advanced in the Old City, the jihadists blew up the Nuri mosque and Mosul’s iconic leaning minaret, known as the “Hadba” (Hunchback), which had been a symbol of the city for centuries.
Mosul was conquered by Arabs in 641 and reached its cultural peak in the 12th century before falling to Mongols in 1262, and then to Persians and Ottomans.
The city became part of Iraq when the country was created out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s.
Britain annexed the oil-rich region in 1918, to the dismay of France which sought to attach the area to its mandate in Syria.
Nineveh has always been a border region, keenly contested by its rival communities and their powerful supporters in neighboring states.
In the early years of this century, Mosul proved a bastion of Saddam’s most dedicated supporters who became a foundation of Daesh.
Extortion and protection rackets in the city were a major source of jihadist funding in the years leading up to 2014.