Islamic State Militants Destroy Ancient Artifacts in Mosul

Irina Bokova, the head of UNESCO, said on Thursday that she was deeply "shocked" by the images of the destruction of ancient artifacts in Mosul by militants of the Islamic State group and called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to protect Iraq's cultural heritage. According to the Associated Press, the statement from the UNESCO chief came shortly after a video was released showing Islamic State fighters destroying artifacts in the city of Mosul. The militants in the video claim that the artifacts are symbols of idolatry and must be destroyed. Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations, also stated that the destruction of artworks in the Mosul Museum is "unimaginable and criminal" and described it as "the theft of the historical past of nations." Irina Bokova stated that the destruction of artworks violates the Security Council resolution regarding the protection of cultural heritage in war zones in Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, Reuters reported from Erbil that members of the Islamic State group in northern Iraq have destroyed a priceless collection of statues and artifacts from the Assyrian period. Archaeologists say that the destruction of this collection is an unimaginable loss to a part of human history. In a video released by the Islamic State group on Thursday, men are shown attacking ancient artifacts, some dating back to the 7th century BC, with sledgehammers and large electric drills, calling them symbols of idolatry. One unidentified man in the film states: "The Prophet has commanded us to destroy statues and artworks, and his followers did the same after conquering every country." He adds: "Muslims! These statues you see behind me are idols that were worshipped in past centuries. The Assyrians, Akkadians, and others worshipped these idols as gods of rain, agriculture, and war, and praised them in various forms." A former employee of the Mosul Museum told Reuters that the destroyed artifacts appear to belong to the museum of ancient objects located in the city of Mosul, which has been under the control of the Islamic State group since the summer. The militants push statues off the tops of columns and smash them on the ground, and one man attacks a winged bull statue with a large electric drill. The video shows the large hall of the museum with shattered statues, while an Islamic chant plays in the background. Lamia al-Gailani, an Iraqi archaeologist and a member of the Institute of Archaeology in London, stated that the militants have inflicted unimaginable damage to the ancient artifacts and added: "These artifacts are not only the heritage of Iraq; they are the heritage of the entire world." She compared the destruction of these artifacts to the destruction of the Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2001. In addition to the winged bull statue from the Assyrian period in the cities of Nineveh and Nimrud in the Mesopotamian region, Ms. al-Gailani added that it seems these militants have destroyed ancient artifacts from Hatra, a city in northern Iraq from the Parthian period, dating back 2000 years. Meanwhile, Eleanor Robinson, a professor of ancient Near Eastern history at University College London, wrote on her Twitter account that the statues of Hatra and Nineveh have been destroyed. She also added that some of the objects shown in the video are second versions of the original artifacts made in modern times. Alex Platt, the head of the Iraq section at UNESCO, did not comment on the content of the video, stating that this issue needs to be investigated. However, he added that the destruction of Iraq's cultural heritage after the capture of Mosul by ISIS fighters is "an attempt to eradicate the identity of a nation." Mr. Platt stated that UNESCO is working with Iraqi officials and neighboring countries to identify and combat the theft of artifacts from areas controlled by the so-called Islamic State group. He stated that auction houses and foundations dealing with artworks and antiquities have been warned about these stolen items. According to Reuters, the Islamic State group, with a very extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam, considers followers of other Islamic sects as infidels. They have attacked the sacred sites of Sufis, Shiites, and churches in the areas under their control in Iraq and Syria.