The tomb of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in Tikrit, northern Iraq, has been razed to the ground after intense fighting between the country’s security forces and ISIS militants, the Associated Press reported.
The damage to Hussein’s once-lavish mausoleum was captured in footage filmed by an AP camera crew on Sunday.
Iraqi forces and Shia militias have been fighting side-by-side in an effort to drive the militant group out of the town, according to the BBC.
Tikrit has been under ISIS control since last June, when the extremists launched a devastating offensive which also saw them take over Iraq’s second biggest city, Mosul.
“This is one of the areas where ISIS militants massed the most because Saddam’s grave is here,” Captain Yasser Nu’ma, an official with the Shiite militias, told AP.
U.S. and Iraqi officials see Tikrit as a strategic location and key to any eventual win in the fight against ISIS.
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