Full Coverage: Islamic State’s assault on historic ruins and artifacts
As Islamic State has advanced across Syria and Iraq, it has looted and destroyed ancient ruins and artifacts. The extremist group views these cultural treasures as vestiges of pagan worship.
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He was a world-renowned scholar of antiquities, enchanted into his old age by Syria’s fabled city of Palmyra, which he called among the most beautiful in the world.
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Islamic State fighters smashed several smuggled artifacts from the ancient city of Palmyra, according to the militant group, raising new concern about the fate of the Syrian site’s spectacular monuments.
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The guide had tears in his eyes as he stood in the remains of the majestic temple of Bel, an ancient deity, the edifice’s stately columns gouged with holes as a result of recent shelling.
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Islamic State militants have entered the museum in the captured Syrian city of Palmyra, but there was no immediate word about the fate of precious artifacts or of the fabled ruins outside town, Syria’s antiquities chief said Thursday.
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Islamic State extremists captured the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra on Wednesday, drawing alarm worldwide about the fate of one of the world’s most spectacular architectural treasures.
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Islamic State extremists Thursday razed an ancient site at Nimrud in Iraq, according to government officials, who accused the group of using heavy vehicles to remove all traces of precious archaeological remains.
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When Islamic State extremists took sledgehammers to what may have been centuries-old treasures in the Iraqi city of Mosul, they were indulging in a long and ruinous tradition of intolerance that has destroyed priceless artifacts around the planet.
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A video released Thursday appears to show Islamic State militants methodically destroying centuries-old artifacts in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which would be the group’s most brazen attack to date on antiquities regarded by the extremists as idolatrous.
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Syria has seen damage to hundreds of historically significant cultural heritage sites since the outbreak of war three years ago, according to a new report released this week by the United Nations.
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Islamic State still generates tens of millions of dollars a month in illicit income despite a U.S.
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The United Nations is being urged to enact a ban on the trade of Syrian antiquities following numerous reports of looting in the war-torn country.
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He works as a blacksmith in one of Baghdad’s swarming Shiite slums.
