IS Fighters Destroy 3,000-Year-Old Artefacts

The Islamic State has released a video which appears to show militants smashing up rare ancient artefacts in northern Iraq.

In five minutes of footage, a group of men can be seen destroying several sculptures up to 3,000 years old, using sledgehammers and pickaxes, in Mosul museum.

One shot reveals a black-clad militant at a nearby archaeological site drilling through a winged-bull Assyrian deity that dates back to the 7th century BC.

Facing the camera, one of the men says: "these ruins that are behind me, they are idols and statues that people in the past used to worship instead of Allah".

The montage was posted on social media sites affiliated with the Islamic State group, and a professor at Mosul's Archaeology College confirmed that the two locations depicted are the city museum and Nirgal Gate, which historically led to the capital of the Assyrian Empire, Ninevah.

"It's a catastrophe," Amir al Jumaili said. "With the destruction of these artefacts, we can no longer be proud of Mosul's civilisation."

Since IS fighters seized large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria, they have sought to cleanse society of everything considered heretic, even targeting Islamic sites deemed idolatrous.

This week reports emerged that fighters have also ransacked Mosul Library, setting fire to more than 10,000 rare manuscripts and books. Some of the documents, which span centuries of learning, were registered on a UNESCO rarities list.

Mosul is the biggest city controlled by the Islamic extremists, who took it in June last year.

Washington has claimed that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are preparing to recapture the city - Iraq's second largest - in April or May.

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