REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BEIRUT - The minaret of a landmark 12th century mosque in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo was destroyed Wednesday, leaving the once-soaring stone tower a pile of rubble and twisted metal scattered in the tiled courtyard.
President Bashar Assad's regime and anti-government activists traded blame for the destruction to the Umayyad Mosque, which occurred in the heart Aleppo's walled Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
It was the second time in just over a week that a historic Sunni mosque in Syria has been seriously damaged. Mosques served as a launching pad for anti-government protests in the early days of the country's 2-year-old uprising, and many have been targeted.
Syrian's state news agency SANA said opposition group from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group blew it up, while Aleppo-based activist Mohammed al-Khatib said a Syrian army tank fired a shell that "totally destroyed" the minaret.
The mosque fell into opposition's hands earlier this year after heavy fighting that damaged the historic compound. The area around it, however, remains contested. Syrian troops are about 200 meters (yards) away.
An amateur video posted online by the anti-government Aleppo Media Center activist group showed the mosque's archways, charred from earlier fighting, and a pile of rubble where the minaret used to be.
Standing inside the mosque's courtyard, a man who appears to be an opposition fighter says regime forces recently fired seven shells at the minaret but failed to knock it down. He said that on Wednesday the tank rounds struck their target.
"We were standing here today and suddenly shells started hitting the minaret," the man says. "They (the army) then tried to storm the mosque but we pushed them back."
The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting of the events depicted. The destruction in Aleppo follows a similar incident in the southern city of Daraa, where the minaret of the historic Omari Mosque was destroyed more than a week ago. The Daraa mosque was built during the Islamic conquest of Syria in the days of Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab in the seventh century.
In that instance as well, the opposition and regime blamed each other for the damage. SANA also accused Jabhat al-Nusra of positioning cameras around the area to record the event in that case.
Syria's civil war, with the use of everything from small arms to artillery and warplanes, poses a grave threat to the country's rich cultural heritage. Last year, the medieval market in Aleppo, which is located near the Umayyad Mosque, was gutted by fire sparked by fighting last year.
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