The battle to retake Mosul left heritage sites in tatters

Through the three-year military campaign to retake Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul from ISIS, many old Islamic, Jewish, and Christian historical sites were damaged. As the city becomes stabilized, people returning are just unearthing the scale of the damage and cultural loss.

Notably, Al-Nuri Mosque and its Al-Hadba Minaret were destroyed in late June of 2017 as ISIS was surrounded and detonated the 12th century Islamic structures. ISIS denied they were responsible for its destruction and the US-led coalition said they did not target any religious sites, even though many were used by the extremists.

In 2014 ISIS blew up the Mosque of Nabi Younis, or the Prophet Jonah, where he is believed to have been entombed. ISIS said the mosque, which had previously been used as an Assyrian church, had become a place of apostasy and not of prayer.