After 800 years, Mosul’s Grand Mosque falls as Iraqi troops close in on ISIS

Iraqi troops trying to retake the city from Islamic State forces were closing on the Grand al-Nouri Mosque and suddenly they saw thick smoke rising from where the mosque stood.The U.S. has denied the claim and so have Iraqi forces.Hussein, an Iraqi Federal Police officer who was near the Old City the night the mosque exploded, told Yahoo News, “I only saw white smoke.