If you blink during the video, you might miss the moment Jonah's tomb in Mosul, Iraq, explodes.
The first few frames show the revered shrine towering over its landscape. There's a sudden burst of dust, fire and smoke.
The holy site is thought
to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah, who was swallowed by a
whale or fish in both the Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions.
Militants belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, planted explosives around the tomb and detonated the explosion remotely Thursday.
The tomb was inside a Sunni mosque called the Mosque of the Prophet Younis.
The group has threatened to destroy any shrine it deems un-Islamic.
Christian families fled
Mosul this month after the al Qaeda splinter group issued an ultimatum
to Iraqi Christians living there: either convert to Islam, pay a fine or
face "death by the sword."
ISIS has blown up several Sunni holy sites in the last few weeks in Mosul.
The explosion at the tomb happened the same day eight people were killed
and two others were wounded when Iraqi fighter jets bombed a store in
the al-Dubat neighborhood, according to Dr. Mohammed Fadel, the director
of Mosul's main hospital.
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