In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi predicted Thursday that U.S.-backed Iraqi forces were nearing a victory in their battle to reclaim the city of Mosul from ISIS. The remarks came a day after the historic al-Nuri Grand Mosque was reduced to rubble. ISIS claims the mosque was destroyed by a U.S. airstrike, though U.S. and Iraqi officials said surveillance video proved it was packed with explosives by ISIS and deliberately blown up. This is Prime Minister al-Abadi.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi: “We will soon announce the final victory over the enemy ISIS in Nineveh province, and in Mosul city, in particular, God willing. Very little resistance remains, and ISIS will announce its full defeat. And they blew up the mosque, which was the starting place of their movement.”

The U.N. estimates as many as 150,000 people remain trapped in Mosul’s Old City amid heavy airstrikes and house-to-house fighting. The journalistic monitoring group Airwars reported four brothers—Othman, Bakr, Omar and Ali—were killed along with their entire family by Iraqi government shelling in Mosul’s Old City.