Shock and anger in Mosul after Islamic State destroys historic mosque| Reuters

By Kawa Omar and Ahmed Rasheed | MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq The leaning al-Habda minaret that has towered over Mosul for 850 years lay in ruins on Thursday, demolished by retreating Islamic State militants, but Iraq’s prime minister said the act marked their final defeat in the country’s second city.“In the early morning, I climbed up to my house roof and was stunned to see the Hadba minaret had gone,” Nashwan, a day- labourer living in Khazraj neighborhood near the mosque, said by phone. “I felt I had lost a son of mine.“His words echoed the shock and anger of many over the destruction of the Grand al-Nuri Mosque along with its famous minaret, known affectionately as “the hunchback” by Iraqis. The demolition came on Wednesday night as Iraqi forces closed on the mosque, which carried enormous symbolic importance for Islamic State