Islamic State bulldozes ancient city in Iraq
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THE Islamic State group has begun bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq, the government said, in the jihadists’ latest attack on the country’s historical heritage.
IS “assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles,” the tourism and antiquities ministry said on its official Facebook page on Thursday.
An Iraqi antiquities official said the destruction began after noon prayers on Thursday and that trucks that might have been used to haul away artefacts had also been spotted at the site.
“Until now, we do not know to what extent it was destroyed,” the official said.
Nimrud, one of the jewels of the Assyrian era, was founded in the 13th century BC and sits on the Tigris River about 30 kilometers southeast of Mosul, Iraq’s second city and the IS group’s main hub in the country.
“I’m sorry to say everybody was expecting this. Their plan is to destroy Iraqi heritage, one site at a time,” said Abdulamir Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist from New York’s Stony Brook University.
“Hatra will be next,” he said, referring to a beautifully preserved city in Nineveh province that is more than 2,000 years old and is a UNESCO world heritage site.
The United Nations cultural body’s Iraq director, Axel Plathe, called Thursday’s reported destruction “another appalling attack on Iraq’s heritage.”
Nimrud is the site of what was described as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century when a team unearthed a collection of jewels and precious stones in 1988.
The jewels were briefly displayed at the Iraqi national museum before disappearing from public view. But they survived the looting that followed the 2003 US invasion and were eventually found in a Central Bank building.
Most of Nimrud’s priceless artefacts have long been moved to museums, in Mosul, Baghdad, Paris, London and elsewhere but giant “lamassu” statues — winged bulls with human heads — and reliefs were still on site.
The destruction at Nimrud came a week after IS released a video showing militants destroying ancient artefacts at the Mosul museum.
That attack sparked widespread consternation and alarm, with some archaeologists and heritage experts comparing it with the 2001 demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
UNESCO director general Irina Bokova demanded an emergency meeting of the Security Council and called for the International Criminal Court to look into the Mosul museum destruction.
Iraqi and allied forces are battling to regain ground from the jihadists with backing from an international anti-IS coalition as well as neighboring Iran.
They are currently engaged in their biggest operation yet, to retake the city of Tikrit, about 100km north of Baghdad.
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