Report: Iraq’s Heritage is now facing a new wave of destruction

Since early June, extremist armed groups, including ISIS, have controlled most of north-west of Iraq, from Mosul downward to Falouja on the Euphrates and Tikrit on the Tigris. According to ISIS law, archaeological sites, museums and artifacts, shrines and tombs, non-Islamic, and even non-Sunni worship places, modern statues and monuments, and libraries should not be existed and must be demolished.

More than 4000 archaeological sites that are located in areas that have been controlled by ISIS are facing a serious threatening either by looting or destruction. The staff, as well as the archaeological sites' guards, of the antiquities' inspectorate of Ninawa province and other districts can't do their daily work in visiting and observing sites because both the security issues and the lack of fuel and vehicles to be used.