Islamic State militants in Iraq have blown up the remnants of the prestigious Latin Church, dubbed the “Clock Church” for its prominent clock tower in central Mosul, according to the Patriarch of the Chaldeans, Louis Raphael Sacco.
Militants cordoned off areas surrounding the church and looted the building for profitable artifacts and antiquities before destroying the remaining parts with explosives, an Iraqi Christian community leader confirmed to The Foreign Desk.
The Clock Church, which had its clock tower gifted in 1873 to Iraqi Christians by Napoleon III’s wife, French Empress Eugénie, became a target of ISIS attacks in February 2015, when its cross was removed in an attack, according to Iraqi blog Niqash.
