BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister presided over the official reopening of the historic al-Nuri Grand Mosque and its leaning minaret in the heart of Mosul’s Old City Monday, eight years after the mosque was destroyed by militants from the Islamic State group.

For some 850 years, the leaning minaret of the mosque stood as an iconic landmark. In 2014, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the so-called “caliphate” there by delivering a Friday sermon and leading prayers.

The militant group later destroyed the mosque by detonating explosives inside the structures as it faced defeat in a battle with Iraqi military forces for control of the city in 2017.

UNESCO, the U.N.’s scientific, educational and cultural organization, worked alongside Iraqi heritage and Sunni religious authorities to

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