When the Islamic State captured the city of Mosul during the 2014 Northern Iraq Offensive, the University was shut down and looted. When it was reopened under their control that year, the only fields of study permitted were medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacy. The University was used as a base by ISIL, with certain buildings being used as barracks and manufacturing facilities for weaponry. Many of the chemistry laboratories were used for the production of chemical weapons, and some were left booby-trapped when the city was retaken by Iraqi forces in 2017. Over 8,000 books and 100,000 manuscripts in its library were believed to have been destroyed. The university reopened in March 2017 with some buildings still under construction.