Widespread outrage after IS bulldozes ancient Iraq city

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 U.N. 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. Nimrud was the latest victim of what appears to be a systematic campaign by the jihadists to obliterate Iraq’s rich heritage.

Their plan is to destroy Iraqi heritage, one site at a time.

Abdulamir Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist from Stony Brook University

UNESCO has called for tougher action to protect the many heritage sites in one of the cradles of civilization, but little can be done in areas under jihadist control. IS tries to justify the destruction by saying the statues are idolatrous, but experts say the jihadists traffic antiquities to fund their self-proclaimed “caliphate” and destroy only those pieces that are too bulky to be smuggled. IS still controls large parts of northern and western Iraq but has been losing ground under mounting military pressure from Iraqi federal and Kurdish forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition and by Iran. Baghdad launched a huge offensive Monday to retake the city of Tikrit, in what commanders have said was a steppingstone toward an even larger operation to free Mosul.

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