Empress Eugenie's Clock Church in Mosul, northern Iraq, which has reportedly been destroyed by Isis
Wiki Commons
Militants from Isis
blew up one of the final remaining churches in their stronghold of Mosul
in Iraq, Empress Eugenie's Clock Church on Monday 25 April.
One of the Mosul's best known remaining churches, the Clock Church
was named after its tower and funded by Empress Eugenie of France who
was the wife of the last French Emperor Napoleon III.
In one of their latest propaganda videos Daesh (Isis) filmed themselves destroying churches while
beheading people and throwing people they accused of being homosexual
off rooftops. The video titled "The Voice of Virtue in Deterring Hell,"
shows the infamous religious police of Isis implementing their strict
version of Sharia law in Iraq and Syria.
When Mosul, which is in Nineveh Province, fell to the jihadists
in June 2014, they destroyed historic sites including Christian and
Muslim shrines as well as places of worship. Isis have not confirmed the
destruction of the church and there is no indication as to why it might
happen now.
It was damaged by a bomb in 2006 and according to
historians, the Clock Church gave its name to the neighbourhood it sat
in, al-Saa. The funds for the tower were given by the Empress Eugenie in
1870 to the Dominican friars' after they attempted to end typhoid in
Mosul.
Mosul sits in a region
with many different ethnic groups and religious minorities. In 2003 it
had more than 40 churches and monasteries at the time of the Allied
forces' invasion.
Isis
are coming under pressure on the outskirts of the city with Kurdish
forces and Iraqi government and Shia militia forces planning to launch
an attack with
SAS soldiers leading the assault.
The US military
recently sent B52 bombers to Qatar to prepare for aerial attacks on the
terrorists' position in the city. Meanwhile, US president Barack Obama
said in April that he believes that IS's second city will fall before
the end of 2016.
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