Archaeologists and officials have expressed their displeasure about the bulldozing of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud by Islamic State militants in Iraq. BBC reports:
On Thursday IS – which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria – began demolishing the site, which was founded in the 13th Century BC, Iraqi officials said. The head of UN’s cultural agency condemned the “systematic” destruction in Iraq as a “war crime”.
IS says ancient shrines and statues are “false idols” that have to be smashed. “They are erasing our history,” Iraqi archaeologist Lamia al-Gailani said. Nimrud lies about 30km (18 miles) south-east of Mosul.
Many of the artefacts found there have been moved to museums in Baghdad and overseas, but many remain on site. As an act of cultural vandalism, the attempt to destroy Nimrud is already being compared with the Taliban’s demolition of the Bamiyan Buddha rock sculptures in Afghanistan in 2001, says the BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut, neighbouring Lebanon.
IS “assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles,” the tourism and antiquities ministry said on Thursday. It said the militants continued to “defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity”, calling for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss how to protect cultural heritage in Iraq.
