Proclamation of the caliphate in Mosul
Following the First Gulf War, the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda, aided by other religious groups, formed the Mujahedin Advisory Council in Iraq in 2006. Shortly afterwards, in 2006, the Advisory Council created a political party: the Islamic State of Iraq. Taking advantage of the geopolitical destabilisation caused by the Iraq War and also by the civil war in Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq expanded and called itself the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant" (Daesh in Arabic). In June 2014, Daesh seized the city of Mosul and announced the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in Iraq, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was proclaimed caliph. The announcement was made from the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, which then became the religious capital of the caliphate. The city remained under occupation for more than three years, during which time nearly one million people lived there. The material destruction and horrors perpetrated against the inhabitants still haunt their memories.
Mosul liberated
On 17 October 2016, the Iraqi government launched a military operation to retake the city of Mosul, which was still in the hands of Daesh. The ground offensive was led by Iraqi forces, with the help of Kurdish peshmerga and the military support of the United States. Iraq announced the liberation of Mosul on 9 July 2017. The project to reconstruct the city began straight away.
