[Published: Tuesday April 24 2018]
 Mosul's landmark Mosque to be rebuilt
MOSUL, Iraq 24 Apr (ANA) - The United Arab Emirates is to give $50m (£36m) to help rebuild a landmark mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul blown up by Islamic State militants.
The UN's cultural agency said a five-year project would restore and reconstruct faithfully the Great Mosque of al-Nuri and its leaning minaret.
The mosque is where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the creation of a "caliphate" in 2014.
The jihadist group destroyed it three years later as Iraqi troops closed in.
All that was left was the base of the minaret and a dome supported by a few pillars.
At the time, Iraq's prime minister said the destruction of the mosque was an "historic crime" that represented the "formal declaration" by IS of its defeat in Mosul.
The battle for the city lasted almost nine months, left large areas in ruins, killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than 900,000 others.
The director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) said on Monday that its partnership with the UAE and Iraqi governments was "the largest and unprecedented co-operation to rebuild cultural heritage in Iraq ever".
The first year of the project will focus on documenting and clearing the site of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, as well as drawing up plans for its reconstruction.
The next four years will focus on the restoration and rebuilding of the famous leaning minaret, the prayer hall, and adjacent buildings.(ANA)
FA/ANA/24 April 2018-----
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Israel/PM