BAGHDAD — The Islamic State group released a video Thursday showing militants using sledgehammers to smash ancient artifacts in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, describing the relics as idols that must be removed.
The destructions are part of a campaign by the extremists, who have destroyed a number of shrines, including Muslim holy sites, to eliminate what they view as heresy.
The five-minute video shows bearded men inside the Mosul Museum using hammers and drills to destroy large statues, which are then shown chipped and in pieces. The video then shows a black-clad man at a nearby archaeological site inside Mosul, drilling through and destroying a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity that dates to the 7th century B.C.
In New York, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, is examining the video. “The destruction of cultural heritage is reprehensible and criminal,” Dujarric said, adding that it robs current and future generations of the history of their past.
Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the surrounding Nineveh province fell to the militants during their blitz in June.
The region under Islamic State control in Iraq has nearly 1,800 of Iraq’s 12,000 registered archaeological sites. The militants appear to be out to cleanse it of any non-Islamic ideas, including library books, archaeological relics, and even Islamic sites considered idolatrous.
