IS militants on a self-destructive mission blow up the ancient city of Nimrud

#ISIS #Nimrud #Assyrian #Mesopotamia #ancientartefacts #Mosul Those among the Islamist State militants who are masterminding the self-destructive missions by ruining ancient towns like Nimrud need to realize that their activities cannot last forever and that they are not invincible or immortal. When they are gone, so would have been reduced to rubble the ancient monuments that make up the history of any city and make the world feel proud of them.
In their latest act of vandalism, the Islamic State militants have blown up the ancient city of Nimrud as a part of their "cultural cleansing" of Iraq and Syria as reported in news.sky.com dated 12 April 2015. But – what will they replace it with? Do they have any plan to build another city which people thousand years hence would boast about?

To confirm their misdeed, they have posted a video online which apparently shows the terror group's fighters smashing artefacts at the 3,000-year-old site near Mosul in northern Iraq. In the video can be seen militants with large barrels of powder in a room lined with gypsum slabs, beautifully carved with representations of Assyrian figures.
As far as history of Mesopotamia goes, Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC and contains one of the most famous archaeological sites in a country which has been dubbed to be the cradle of civilization. Due to its importance, it was on UNESCO's tentative list of world heritage sites.
During the destruction, there was a huge explosion and then, IS fighters hacked away at the statues with sledgehammers and carved them up with angle grinders.
In the opinion of Middle East expert Professor Fawaz Gerges, from the London School of Economics, the Islamic State is a "social epidemic" that is "culturally cleansing" an area the size of the UK and the video now released should be seen as a "powerful propaganda tool" to counter set-backs they are facing on the battlefield.

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Islamic State bulldozes Hatra as a part of its cultural cleansing mission

#Hatra #Nimrud #ISIS #Mosul #Iraq #UNESCOWorldHeritage After the destruction of Nimrud the Islamic State have now targeted the ancient archaeological site of Hatra in Iraq as a part of what it has termed as a cultural cleansing mission as reported in news.sky.com dated 7 March 2015.
UNESCO has already said that the destruction of Nimrud "constitutes a war crime" and has called on people around the world to protect "the heritage of the whole of humanity". Nimrud, located on the River Tigris just south of Mosul, had fallen to the ISIS last June.
The IS has now turned its attention on looting and destroying artefacts from the ancient archaeological site of Hatra in Iraq. According to a Kurdish official, the militants have removed artefacts from Hatra and have taken activities to destroy the Roman period ancient fortress city.
It seems local residents near Hatra had heard two large explosions followed by bulldozers moving in.
Hatra was founded over 2,000 years ago and is the second ancient city that had been targeted by IS militants in recent days. The city is located 68 miles south-west of Iraq's second largest city Mosul and had been declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1985. As UNESCO director general Irina Bokova has remarked - the destruction of Hatra marks a turning point in the appalling strategy of cultural cleansing under way in Iraq.