Posted on 04/24/2013 12:23:49 PM PDT by Hojczyk
The 11th-century minaret of the Great Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, one of the world's oldest and most important, has been destroyed by shellfire as the Syrian war consumes the country's vast repository of historic sites.
Oppositions activists in the city said the minaret was hit by tank shells fired as part of a regime assault on the mosque, which was originally built in 715 by the Umayyad dynasty and which fell into rebel hands last week. The minaret itself dated to 1090 AD.
Video posted by the Aleppo Media Centre showed a pile of rubble in the corner of the Great Mosque's courtyard, sprouting twisted metal spikes, where the minaret once stood. The colonnades and arches of the courtyard itself lie scorched, broken, and pockmarked with bullet and shell-holes.
The collapse also appeared to happen in the middle of a battle, with rebel soldiers stationed inside the mosque in the middle of live fire. They were claimed to be from Liwa al-Tawhid, a more moderate though Sunni Islamist-aligned brigade largely drawn from the countryside around Aleppo, rather than from Jabhat al-Nusra.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I feel for the destruction of one of our planets really really old buildings but as far as those guys getting shelled, good for Assad. They’d just gone out and found some Christians to kill if they hadn’t been disposed of.
“...a regime assault on the mosque...”
Don’t hide anyplace you’re not willing to see destroyed.
ping
“Drop your bombs between the minarets...”
+1
Islam, a religion of “pieces”. Yes.
Gee, more like a Taliban or Al Qaeda attack on non-Moslem monuments such as those destroyed in Afghanistan and Timbuktu, or Palestinian destroyed Hebrew monuments in the West Bank (Samaria & Judea) area.
What goes round, comes round, this time in a tank round.
Someone kindly ping me with a good reason to give half a damn.
Not everyone rebelling against Assad is a terrorist or extremist. Huge numbers of them are average citizens and he is using chemical weapons on them. I think your sentiment is vile. I have a co-worker with family in Syria who he can’t contact.
That sound you didn’t hear was me not giving a damn.
The muslims probably don’t find this to be very amuezzin.
Bush’s fault
“appeared to happen in the middle of a battle, with rebel soldiers stationed inside the mosque in the middle of live fire”
They respected the mosque so much that they fired FROM it, ad now are upset someone shot back.
At least when they are killing each other, they are not trying to kill Israelis or Americans.
It is a shame that an 11th century piece of history was destroyed by an 8th century people.
What can be destroyed—can be rebuilt. I would like to see it replaced by a Christian Church! These folks need to be converted.
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