Baghdad - Condemnation poured in Friday of the Islamic State group's bulldozing of the ancient city of Nimrud, the jihadists' latest attack on Iraqi cultural treasures that the UN termed a "war crime".
After rampaging through Mosul's museum with sledgehammers and torching its library last month, IS "bulldozed" the nearby ruins of Nimrud Thursday, the tourism and antiquities ministry said.
Antiquities officials said IS militants had moved trucks last week to the site overlooking the Tigris River, 30 kilometres (18 miles) southeast of their main hub of Mosul.
"Until now, we do not know to what extent it was destroyed," one official said.
Nimrud was the latest victim of what appears to be a systematic campaign by the jihadists to obliterate Iraq's rich heritage.
"I'm really devastated. But it was just a matter of time, now we're waiting for the video. It's sad," Abdulamir Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist from Stony Brook University in New York, said of the propaganda film of the destruction that IS is likely to release.
Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC and was considered the jewel of the Assyrian era.
Its stunning reliefs and colossal statues of winged bulls with human heads guarding palace gates filled the world's museums in the 19th century.
A collection of 613 pieces of gold jewellery, ornaments and precious stones discovered in a royal tomb in 1988 has been described as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century.
"Their plan is to destroy Iraqi heritage, one site at a time," said Hamdani.
AFP
