The Islamic State group has destroyed the ancient Iraqi fortress city of Hatra, Kurdish and Iraqi officials said Saturday, just two days after "bulldozing" the ruins of Nimrud and weeks after smashing artefacts in the Mosul museum.
Speaking from Mosul, Kurdistan Democratic Party official Said Mamuzini told the Kurdish news site Rudaw that militants from the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had begun looting and destroying the site with shovels.
"The city of Hatra is very big and many artefacts of that era were protected inside the site,” he said. “ISIS has already taken away all the ancient currencies from the city that are in gold and silver."
Iraqi officials from the tourism and antiquities ministry confirmed the reports.
The fortified and pillared city of Hatra, which once withstood an attack by the Romans, is a 2,000-year-old site that lies 110 kilometres (68 miles) south of Mosul and is known for its beautifully preserved temples combining Hellenistic, Roman and Eastern influences.
Islamic State group jihadists "bulldozed" the ruins of Nimrud on Thursday using heavy military vehicles, Iraq’s tourism and antiquities ministry said.
“Daesh terrorist gangs continue to defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity,” the ministry said, referring to the Islamic State group by its Arabic acronym, Daesh.
“In a new crime in their series of reckless offences they assaulted the ancient city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy machinery, appropriating the archaeological attractions dating back 13 centuries BC."
A local tribal source confirmed the attack.
“Islamic State members came to the Nimrud archaeological city and looted the valuables in it and then they proceeded to level the site to the ground,” the source told Reuters.
“There used to be statues and walls as well as a castle that Islamic State has destroyed completely."
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