BAGHDAD: Jihadists on Wednesday blew up Mosul's iconic leaning minaret and the adjacent mosque where their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014 declared himself "caliph" in his only public appearance, an Iraqi commander said.

The Islamic State group swiftly issued a statement via its Amaq propaganda agency blaming a US strike but the US-led coalition condemned the destruction as a crime against "the people of Mosul and all of Iraq".

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