The Ancient Sites Now Under Threat from ISIS in Libya | Jack Moore
Armed with sledgehammers, chisels and a video camera, ISIS militants took their propaganda campaign to Mosul museum last month, destroying statues and artifacts, dating back to the ancient Assyrian and Akkadian empires, and posting the results online and in slow motion.
The terror group’s impetuous destruction of statues and artefacts in Iraq’s second city, which it has controlled since its march across the Sunni-majority northern regions of Iraq last summer, has caused dismay within the archaeological community.
While many believe that the group attacks or loot antiquities for mere shock value or financial gain, ISIS holds an intolerance towards items that are deemed jahili (pre-Islamic) and antiquities that depict humans, such as Roman statues or mosaics, according to Dr Hafed Walda, the pending deputy ambassador to the permanent Libyan delegation at Unesco.
FULL ARTICLE (via Newsweek)