BAGHDAD: The Islamic State group have begun bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq, the government said, in the jihadists’ latest attack on the country’s historical heritage.
IS “assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles,” the tourism and antiquities ministry said on an official Facebook page.
An Iraqi antiquities official confirmed the news, saying the destruction began after noon prayers on Thursday and that trucks that may have been used to haul away artefacts had also been spotted at the site.
“Until now, we do not know to what extent it was destroyed,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Nimrud, one of the jewels of the Assyrian era, was founded in the 13th century BC and lies on the Tigris River around 30 kilometers (18 miles) southeast of Mosul, Iraq’s second city and the IS group’s main hub in the country.
“I’m sorry to say everybody was expecting this. Their plan is to destroy Iraqi heritage, one site at a time,” said Abdulamir Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist from Stony Brook University.
“Hatra of course will be next,” he said, referring to a beautifully-preserved city in Nineveh province that is more than 2,000 years old and is a UNESCO world heritage site.
“I’m really devastated. But it was just a matter of time,” he said.
Nimrud is the site of what was described as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century when a team unearthed a collection of jewels and precious stones in 1988.
The jewels were briefly displayed at the Iraqi national museum before disappearing from public view. But they survived the looting that followed the 2003 US invasion and were eventually found in a Central Bank building.
Most of Nimrud’s priceless artefacts have long been moved to museums, in Mosul, Baghdad, Paris, London and elsewhere but giant “lamassu” statues — winged bulls with human heads — and reliefs were still on site.
The destruction at Nimrud Thursday came a week after the jihadist group released a video showing militants armed with sledgehammers and jackhammers smashing priceless ancient artefacts at the Mosul museum.
That attack sparked widespread consternation and alarm, with some archaeologists and heritage experts comparing it with the 2001 demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taleban.
In the jihadists’ extreme interpretation of Islam, statues, idols and shrines amount to recognizing objects of worship other than God and must be destroyed.
The video released by IS last week showed militants knocking statues off their plinths and rampaging through the Mosul museum’s collection.
It also shows jihadists using a jackhammer to deface an imposing granite Assyrian winged bull at the Nergal Gate in Mosul.
“These artefacts behind me are idols for people from ancient times who worshipped them instead of God,” a bearded militant said in the video.
“The prophet removed and buried the idols in Makkah with his blessed hands,” he said, referring to the Muslim prophet Mohammed.
Many of the artefacts destroyed in the Mosul museum were from Nimrud and Hatra.
UNESCO director general Irina Bokova demanded an emergency meeting of the Security Council and called for the International Criminal Court to look into the Mosul museum destruction.
The IS group spearheaded a sweeping offensive last June that overran Nineveh province, where Mosul and Nimrud are located, and swept through much of Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland.
The Mosul region was home to a mosaic of minorities, including the Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves to be the region’s indigenous people.
IS militants have systematically destroyed heritage sites in areas controlled by the group, including Sunni Muslim shrines that they also consider heretical, and they have repeatedly attacked members of religious minorities.
Iraqi security forces and allied fighters are battling to regain ground from the jihadists with backing from an international anti-IS coalition as well as neighboring Iran.
But major operations to drive IS out of Nineveh are likely months away, leaving the province’s irreplaceable historical sites at the mercy of militants who have no regard for Iraq’s past.
During the rule of now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq enforced laws protecting historical sites.
But years of violence before the 2003 invasion and crippling international sanctions saw the maintenance of Iraq’s heritage take a back seat to other more urgent demands.
Since the overthrow of the Hussein regime, such laws have been patchily enforced and the government has prioritised reconstruction of the war-battered country over preservation of heritage buildings, and many have now fallen into neglect.
Iraq’s national museum in Baghdad officially reopened on February 28 after 12 years of painstaking efforts to recover nearly a third of the 15,000 pieces looted during the US-led invasion.
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IS ‘bulldozed’ ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, Iraq says
IS ‘bulldozed’ ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, Iraq says
Israel says struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon
- Israeli military said Thursday’s strike targeted medium-range rocket launchers in the Nabatieh area
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon on Thursday, despite a fragile ceasefire with the militant group.
The truce, which took effect on November 27, has been marked by mutual accusations of violations from both sides.
The Israeli military said Thursday’s strike targeted medium-range rocket launchers in the Nabatieh area.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported at least three Israeli strikes in the area.
“Prior to the strike a request was sent to the Lebanese armed forces to neutralize the launchers that posed a threat to Israeli civilians and... troops,” the military said in a statement.
“The launchers were struck only after the request was not addressed by the Lebanese armed forces.”
Under the terms of the ceasefire, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period.
Hezbollah is to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River — some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle its military infrastructure in the south.
In late December, the UN peacekeeping force expressed concern at the “continuing” damage done by Israeli forces in south Lebanon.
On Thursday, the Israeli military insisted it was acting to remove any threat to Israel “in accordance with the ceasefire understandings.”
Israeli forces withdraw from Naqoura, advance into other Lebanese villages
- French foreign minister meets Berri, heads to Damascus to meet Al-Sharaa
BEIRUT: The Lebanese army was preparing to enter the southern coastal town of Naqoura on Thursday to retake its positions after observing the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area.
The army is paving the way for its redeployment by conducting an initial engineering survey of the town to remove unexploded ordnance.
This is the third withdrawal of Israeli forces from towns into which they advanced during the ground war in Lebanon launched by Israel on Oct. 1. The ceasefire agreement, effective since Nov. 27, stipulated that Israel would complete its withdrawal from the border areas it had entered within 60 days.
On Thursday, Israeli forces were seen withdrawing from neighborhoods in Naqoura toward Ras Naqoura and Alma Al-Shaab, conducting sweeps with machine guns during the retreat.
The area of Israeli incursion remains devoid of residents — under Israeli orders — until further notice.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army prohibits citizens from returning to the towns until the army assumes control, seizes any weapons found, and dismantles any Hezbollah assets, in line with UN Resolution 1701.
The Lebanese army had repositioned in the town of Khiam about 10 days ago and in the town of Chamaa shortly before the end of the year.
Concurrently, Israeli Merkava tanks continued to shell homes in an area between the towns of Yater and Beit Lif in the Bint Jbeil district.
An Israeli patrol, reinforced with tanks and a bulldozer, advanced into the area on Thursday.
Israeli forces are still demolishing homes, bulldozing roads, and destroying facilities, rendering the border area from Naqoura in the west to Shebaa in the east an uninhabitable, scorched zone for years to come.
A security source said that “Israeli forces advanced for the first time since the start of the ground war to the outskirts of Beit Lif, where soldiers searched some homes and wooded areas.”
An Israeli unit also advanced from the town of Ramyah, while another unit, equipped with two bulldozers, moved toward the town of Majdal Zoun, simultaneously targeting homes and neighborhoods with artillery shelling.
Israeli reconnaissance planes continued to intrude into Lebanese airspace, flying at low altitude to the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Security reports indicated that Israeli forces set fire to several homes in the town of Aitaroun in the Bint Jbeil district on Wednesday night.
The secretary-general of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said that he had given “the Lebanese state an opportunity to prove itself and take responsibility for ensuring Israel’s exit from Lebanon.”
In a speech on the first day of the new year, he affirmed that “the resistance has regained its strength,” referring to Hezbollah’s military wing.
In the same context, Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan criticized “the daily Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement in many forms. The areas that the Israeli army could not reach during the aggression are now being accessed in many villages following the ceasefire, under the watch of the quintet committee and international public opinion,” he said.
There are 23 days left for the Israeli army to completely withdraw from the south under the agreement. However, a political observer expressed concern that “Hezbollah will be free to respond to Israeli violations after the end of the deadline, with a calculated response that does not breach Resolution 1701.”
On the political and diplomatic front, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday met with US Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, head of the supervisory committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire, in the presence of US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who is in Beirut, met with Berri and is scheduled to travel to Damascus on Friday to see Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Syria’s de facto leader, before returning to Beirut and leaving from the city’s Rafic Hariri International Airport to France.
Barrot and French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu spent New Year’s Eve with UNIFIL French contingent peacekeepers in south Lebanon. Lecornu returned to France the next day.
Ousted Syrian president Bashar Assad poisoned in Moscow — report
- Assad reportedly fell ill on Sunday in Moscow, where he has resided since fleeing Syria in early December
- Account believed to be run by former Russian spy says Assad’s condition said to be stabilized by Monday
LONDON: An assassination attempt by poisoning has been made on former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, The Sun reported.
The ousted leader reportedly fell ill on Sunday in Moscow, where he has resided since fleeing Syria in early December.
Assad, 59, requested medical help then began to “cough violently and choke,” according to online account General SVR, which is believed to be run by a former top spy in Russia.
“There is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made,” it added.
Assad was treated in his apartment, and his condition is said to have stabilized by Monday. He was confirmed to have been poisoned by medical testing, the account said, without citing direct sources.
There has been no confirmation of the event from the Russian government.
Bashar Assad poisoned in Moscow: Report
- Ousted Syrian dictator requested medical help then began to ‘cough violently and choke’
- ‘There is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made’
LONDON: An assassination attempt by poisoning has been made on former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, The Sun reported.
The ousted leader reportedly fell ill on Sunday in Moscow, where he has resided since fleeing Syria in early December.
Assad, 59, requested medical help then began to “cough violently and choke,” according to online account General SVR, which is believed to be run by a former top spy in Russia.
“There is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made,” it added.
Assad was treated in his apartment, and his condition is said to have stabilized by Monday. He was confirmed to have been poisoned by medical testing, the account said, without citing direct sources.
There has been no confirmation of the event from the Russian government.
Gaza’s Islamic Jihad says Israeli hostage tried to take own life
- One of the group’s medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying
DUBAI: An Israeli hostage held by Gaza’s Islamic Jihad militant group has tried to take his own life, the spokesperson for the movement’s armed wing said in a video posted on Telegram on Thursday.
One of the group’s medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying, the Al Quds Brigades spokesperson added, without going into any more detail on the hostage’s identity or current condition.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Militants led by Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement killed 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage in an attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad also took part in the assault.
The military campaign that Israel launched in response has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to health officials in the coastal enclave.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said the hostage had tried to take his own life three days ago due to his psychological state, without going into more details.
Abu Hamza accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of setting new conditions that had led to “the failure and delay” of negotiations for the hostage’s release.
The man had been scheduled to be released with other hostages under the conditions of the first stage of an exchange deal with Israel, Abu Hamza said. He did not specify when the man had been scheduled to be released or under which deal.
Arab mediators’ efforts, backed by the United States, have so far failed to conclude a ceasefire in Gaza, under a possible deal that would also see the release of Israeli hostages in return for the freedom of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
Islamic Jihad’s armed wing had issued a decision to tighten the security and safety measures for the hostages, Abu Hamza added.
In July, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing said some Israeli hostages had tried to kill themselves after it started treating them in what it said was the same way that Israel treated Palestinian prisoners.
“We will keep treating Israeli hostages the same way Israel treats our prisoners,” Abu Hamza said at that time. Israel has dismissed accusations that it mistreats Palestinian prisoners.
