The 2,000-year-old city of Hatra in Iraq was attacked and destroyed by Islamic State militants while the militants in Syria are targeting Christian villages, DW reports. Hatra was classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987. It is approximately 110 kilometers south of the militant's stronghold of Mosul in Nineveh province.
Not only that the city is ancient and rich in history, it also houses ancient old and priceless artifacts including religious statues and shrines. The hundred year old artifacts and religious figures were destroyed by IS that is according to them are false idols.
The head of the Department of Antiquities at the University of Musol has told the German press organization that the loss in Hatra will not be compensated.
The attack in the city came a few days after the militant group did similar attacks on the remains of the Assyrian city of Nimrud, south of Mosul. The attacks which was called by IS as "cultural cleansing" was condemned and called by UNESCO as an equal to war crimes.
BBC also added that a week before the attack, a video uploaded online shows IS fighters destroying ancient old statues with sledgehammers and drills in a museum in Mosul. Majority of the artifacts were from the ancient city of Nimrud. The film also showed jihadists ransacking a statue of a bull at the Negral Gate into the city Nineveh.
The attacks on the ancient cities were compared to the destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas in 2001 by the Talibans.