minaret

He saw the gloriously skewed al-Hadba minaret, known as the "hunchback", which had been emblematic of Mosul for hundreds of years, in ruins.

One video surfaced of residents rushing to mosques to announce from minarets that “the dog Bashar has fallen.”

The minaret of every mosque they passed was toppled, he said.

Famed for its palaces, tiled mosques and minarets, Isfahan - where blasts were heard overnight - is also a major centre for military industry.

The wheat and potato fields there run right up to the Gaza border fence, within sight of the apartment buildings, water towers and minarets of the Palestinian village of Abasan just beyond it.