Isis launches assault on third archaeological site in three days in bid to destroy centuries of human knowledge

[EC]

The Iraqi Government has received reports that militants are looting and damaging Khorsabad – 9 miles from Mosul – as they continue to attack its cultural heritage, Associated Press reports.

It has led the Government to criticise the US-led coalition forces, which have carried out 2,800 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since August but aren’t doing enough to protect its cultural heritage.

Iraqi Tourism and Antiquities Minister Adel Shirshab said: "Our airspace is not in our hands. It's in their hands,” Reuters reports.

"I am calling on the international community and coalition to activate its air strikes and target terrorism wherever it exists," he added.

An image grab taken off a video reportedly released by Media Office of the Nineveh branch of the Islamic State (IS) Group on February 25, 2015, allegedly shows an IS militant destroying the statue of Lamassu, an Assyrian diety, with a sledgehammer in the northern Iraqi Governorate of Nineveh. The five-minute video shows IS militants knocking statues off their plinths in the Mosul museum and smashing them to pieces with sledgehammers. An image grab taken off a video reportedly released by Media Office of the Nineveh branch of the Islamic State (IS) Group on February 25, 2015, allegedly shows an IS militant destroying the statue of Lamassu, an Assyrian diety, with a sledgehammer in the northern Iraqi Governorate of Nineveh. The five-minute video shows IS militants knocking statues off their plinths in the Mosul museum and smashing them to pieces with sledgehammers. At a press conference earlier Sunday, Shirshab said they have called for an extraordinary session of the U.N. Security Council to address the crisis in Iraq.

He said: "The world should bear the responsibility and put an end to the atrocities of the militants, otherwise I think the terrorist groups will continue with their violent acts," Associated Press reports.

Read more if you want to be depressed: http://report24.co.uk/article/116031/isis-launches-assault-on-third-archaeological-site-in-three-days-in-bid-to-destroy-centuries-of-human-knowledge

[alicewonders]

Inconceivable that something like this is happening while the entire world watches. 

[Oceander]

Inconceivable that something like this is happening while the entire world watches. 

The Taliban did it as well.

[alicewonders]

The Taliban did it as well.

Yes, I remember that.  Those huge statues.  Makes you wonder how any of the antiquities have survived this long in the middle east with these barbarians cropping up every so often.