Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Iraq uncovered on Sunday a UN initiative to rehabilitate ancient sites which were devastated by Islamic State extremists during their capture of Nineveh province earlier.

Speaking to IKH News, Iraq’s deputy tourism and antiquities minister Qais Hussein Rashid said the initiative, brokered by the UN and several other countries, aims at “re-constructing touristic, archaeological and heritage sites destroyed by terrorist IS gangs in the city of Mosul.”

“The rehabilitation process will mainly focus on the walls and tombs of the ancient Assyrian city,” Rashid pointed out.

He stressed that countries like the UAE, Kuwait, the US and Britain will take part in the UN-brokered initiative, besides many other countries.

Last week, Iraqi security forces foiled a plot by Islamic State militants to detonate an ancient citadel in Tal Afar district in Nineveh.

Several archaeological sites in Iraq suffered grievous damage at the hands of the Islamic State group, which declared a caliphate in the summer of 2014 from Mosul city.

After capturing the second largest city of Mosul, the IS group released a series of videos, showing its members smashing artifacts at Mosul Museum and blowing up parts of the site of the Assyrian capital of Nimrud.

Several activists, officials and historians condemned IS at the time for the destruction of the ancient Assyrian archaeological sites, while UNESCO described the act as a war crime. </s> Iraqi forces have recaptured three neighbourhoods in their offensive to wrestle contol of West Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) group (AFP Photo/ARIS MESSINIS)

Mosul (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraqi forces said Tuesday they had seized the main government offices in Mosul and its famed museum as they made steady progress in their battle to retake the city's west from jihadists.

The advances, which also included the recapture of three neighbourhoods, were announced on the third day of a renewed offensive against the Islamic State group in west Mosul -- the largest remaining urban stronghold in the "caliphate" IS declared in 2014.

Supported by the US-led coalition bombing IS in Iraq and Syria, Iraqi forces began their push against west Mosul on February 19. The advance slowed during several days of bad weather but was renewed on Sunday.

The latest gains have brought government forces closer to Mosul's densely populated Old City, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to still be trapped under jihadist rule.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command (JOC) said federal police and the elite Rapid Response Division had been able to "liberate" the Nineveh provincial government headquarters.

They also seized control of the Al-Hurriyah bridgehead, it said, in a step towards potentially relinking west Mosul with the city's east, which government forces seized earlier in the offensive.

All the bridges crossing the Tigris in Mosul have been damaged or destroyed, and Iraqi forces would either have to repair them or instal floating bridges to reconnect the two banks of the river dividing the city.

Officers said Tuesday security forces had also managed to recapture the Mosul museum, where the jihadists destroyed priceless artefacts, releasing a video of their rampage in February 2015.

The video showed militants at the museum knocking statues off their plinths and smashing them to pieces. A jackhammer was also used to deface a large Assyrian winged bull at an archaeological site in the city.

"Rapid Response entered the museum... there is nothing there," Lieutenant Colonel Abdulamir al-Mohammedawi said.

The jihadists' attacks on ancient heritage in Iraq and Syria have sparked widespread international outrage and fears for some of the world's most precious archaeological sites.

The museum was on a police list released Tuesday of sites recaptured from IS, which also included Mosul's central bank building, which the jihadists looted along with other banks in 2014, seizing tens of millions of dollars.

The JOC also announced Tuesday that Iraqi forces had regained complete control of the west Mosul neighbourhoods of Al-Dawasa, Al-Danadan and Tal al-Ruman, and were advancing against the jihadists in other areas.

In Al-Danadan, streets were left strewn with rubble and windows were blown out of many houses.

"There were mortar rounds falling on us, they fell on the roof and in the courtyard," said Manhal, a 28-year-old resident.

The fighting in west Mosul has forced more than 51,000 people to flee their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration.

But the number who have fled is still just a fraction of the 750,000 people believed to have stayed on in west Mosul under IS rule.

Emerging from the chaos of the civil war in neighbouring Syria, IS seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014, declaring its Islamic "caliphate" and committing widespread atrocities.

The US-led coalition launched air strikes against the jihadists in both countries several months later, and has backed both Iraqi forces and fighters in Syria battling IS.

The jihadists have been pushed from most of the territory they once seized but still control key bastions including west Mosul and the caliphate's de facto Syrian capital Raqa.

In Syria, they have faced offensives by three rival forces.

Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies have pushed south from the Turkish border and driven IS out of the northern town of Al-Bab.

Syrian government troops have driven east from second city Aleppo with Russian support and seized a swathe of countryside from the jihadists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the conflict, said Tuesday regime forces had recaptured a key water pumping station that supplies water to second city Aleppo.

"Regime forces took over the area of Al-Khafsa and seized the water-pumping station after the withdrawal of the IS jihadists," it said.

Thousands of civilians have fled Al-Khafsa for Manbij since Monday, said a source in the Manbij Military Council. A Syrian military source quoted by state media said the army continued its advance to "restore security and stability to Al-Khafsa" and surrounding towns. A US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters has been advancing on Raqa, and on Monday reached the Euphrates River cutting the main road to the partly IS-held city of Deir Ezzor downstream. World powers have vowed increased cooperation in tackling the global threat from IS, which from its base in Syria and Iraq has organised or inspired a series of deadly attacks in foreign cities. Turkish, Russian and US military chiefs held talks on Tuesday in the southern Turkish city of Antalya on issues including cooperation in Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, the White House said it will host Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Washington later this month. </s> Displaced Iraqi boys cry after their father was killed by a mortar launched by Daesh militants at Samah neighbourhood during a fight between the militants and the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service in Mosul, Iraq, on Sunday (Reuters photo)

MOSUL, Iraq — Iraqi forces said on Sunday they had recaptured the site of an ancient Assyrian city blown up by the Daesh terror group, as they battled the extremists south of Mosul.

The troops pushed towards Nimrud last week as they pressed an offensive begun on October 17 to recapture Iraq's second city, which the militants seized along with swathes of Iraq and Syria in mid-2014.

A Kurdish-Arab alliance is pursuing a twin offensive against the other major city still under Daesh control, Raqqa in Syria, and a US-led coalition is backing both assaults with air strikes.

"The villages of Al Nomaniyah and Al Nimrud and the ruins of Nimrud were recaptured," Staff Brigadier General Saad Ibrahim of the 9th Armoured Division told AFP.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command had announced earlier in the day that the entire Nimrud area was retaken, but later said that this was incorrect.

The village of Nimrud and the archaeological site have, however, been recaptured, 

 the JOC said.

Nimrud was the one of the great centres of the ancient Middle East. Founded in the 13th century BC, it became the capital of the Assyrian empire, whose rulers built vast palaces and monuments that have drawn archaeologists for more than 150 years.

In April last year, Daesh posted a video on the Internet of its fighters smashing monuments before planting explosives around the site and blowing it up.

It was part of a campaign of destruction against heritage sites under extremist control that also took in Hatra in the desert south of Mosul and Palmyra in neighbouring Syria.

Daesh says the ancient monuments are idols that violate the teachings of its extreme form of religious interpretation, but it has still sold artefacts to fund its operations.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation welcomed the news of Nimrud’s recapture.

“We welcome the news that Nimrud, a UNESCO world heritage site, is back under the control of the Iraqi government,” said spokesman George Papagiannis.

“We look forward to coordinating with the relevant authorities in Baghdad on providing support for any assessments that need to be done of the site, once the area has been stabilised.”

The Iraqi offensive has seen federal forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters advance on Mosul from the east, south and north.

The elite Counter-Terrorism Services (CTS) force has pushed into the eastern outskirts of Mosul, with heavy fighting in recent days.

CTS Staff Lieutenant Colonel Muntadhar Salem told AFP on Sunday that its forces were looking to move into a new eastern neighbourhood.

“Our goal today is to clear out [Daesh] from the western part of Karkukli,” he said.

North of Karkukli in the neighbourhood of Arbajiyah, CTS forces were facing sniper fire as they moved street-to-street clearing houses.

On the edge of Mosul, dozens of civilians could be seen walking towards a gathering point from where they would be taken to a camp for the displaced. A dozen men swarmed around a barber shop for a shave. </s> The ancient city of Babylon, first referenced in a clay tablet from the 23rd century B.C., was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Friday, after a vote that followed decades of lobbying by Iraq, Reuters reported on Saturday.

The vote at a meeting of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, World Heritage Committee held in Azerbaijan's capital Baku, made the ancient Mesopotamian city on the Euphrates River the sixth world heritage site within the borders of a country known as a cradle of civilisation.

Iraqi President Barham Salih said the city, now an archaeological ruin, was returned to its "rightful place" in history after years of neglect by previous leaders.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi also welcomed the news. "Mesopotamia is truly the pillar of humanity's memory and the cradle of civilization in recorded history," he said.

The Iraq government said it would allocate funds to maintain and boost conservation efforts.

Babylon, about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad, was once the centre of a sprawling empire, renowned for its towers and mudbrick temples. Its hanging gardens were one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, commissioned by King Nebuchadnezzar II.

Visitors can stroll through the remnants of the brick and clay structures, which stretch across 10 square kilometres, and see the famed Lion of Babylon statue, as well as large portions of the original Ishtar Gate.

Excavations of what was once the largest city in the world, began in the early 19th century by European archaeologists, who removed many artefacts. In the 1970s, under President Saddam Hussein's restoration project, the southern palace's walls and arches were shoddily rebuilt on top of the existing ruins, causing widespread damage.

This was exacerbated during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, when US and Polish troops stationed nearby built their military base on top of the Babylonian ruins. Many inscriptions written by soldiers can still be seen on the ancient bricks.

The site is in dire need of conservation. Unlike three other World Heritage sites in Iraq, UNESCO did not designate Babylon as one in "in danger" after objections from the Iraqi delegation.

Iraq is replete with thousands of archaeological sites, many of which were heavily damaged or pillaged by Daesh during its barbaric three-year-rule that ended in 2017.

The other five World Heritage Sites are the southern marshlands, Hatra, Samarra, Ashur and the citadel in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region. </s> Nimrud's palace and temples, once at the heart of an empire which stretched across the Middle East, were razed by the ultra-hardline zealots after they swept through northern Iraq in 2014, destroying historic sites they declared idolatrous.

Whether any treasures at Nimrud can be rescued will be hard to assess until archaeologists can get there. That will take time because of fears the militants have left bombs or even fighters concealed in tunnels among the ruins.

"We are stepping up drone surveillance now over Nimrud to make sure no imminent threat still exists," a colonel in the Ninth Armoured Division told Reuters.

He said troops were in control of the area, but had strict instructions to be "extremely cautious" and were staying out of Nimrud while remaining villages nearby were cleared. The drones overflying the area were unarmed.

"We want to make sure we don't inflict even the least damage to buildings in Nimrud already damaged by the evil Daesh (Islamic State)," he said.

Nimrud lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris river, 30 km (20 miles) south of Mosul where Iraqi soldiers are battling to crush Islamic State. Mosul is the largest city under the militants' control in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The Sunni Islamist group still controls the remains of the ancient city of Nineveh, in central Mosul. Khorsabad, another Assyrian site northeast of Mosul, is close to the frontline of the current conflict.

To the south, the 2,000-year-old desert city of Hatra, famed for its pillared temple blending Graeco-Roman and eastern styles, was also seized and damaged by the militants in 2014.

The UN cultural agency UNESCO has condemned the destruction at Nimrud as a war crime and an attack on the world's shared heritage, pointing to ancient Mesopotamia's role as a cradle of civilization where early urban centers flourished and cuneiform writing on clay was developed.

"Liberation of ancient Iraqi archaeological sites from the control of the forces of dark and evil is a victory not only for Iraqis but for all humanity," Iraq's deputy culture minister Qais Hussain Rasheed told Reuters after the army announced it had taken Nimrud.

In neighboring Syria, Islamic State was driven out of the city of Palmyra eight months ago, after dynamiting monuments including two temples and Palmyra's imposing triumphal arch.

Syria's antiquities chief said much of Palmyra could be restored, but video footage of the destruction carried out by the militants in Nimrud, and a government report issued last year, suggest the devastation in Iraq is extensive.

The report by Iraq's culture ministry said a carved wall panel was stolen from the northern palace at Nimrud in July 2014. Eight months later, far greater damage was inflicted.

The militants destroyed 10 colossal statues of winged bulls, located at the palace gates and at the temple of Ishtar - goddess of love, war, sex and power - and Nabu - god of literature and wisdom.

A month later in April 2015 "the gangs completely blew up the city and its ancient buildings" the report said.

Video released by Islamic State supporters, purporting to show them at work in Nimrud, included footage of the militants using bulldozers and electric drills to tear down murals and statues. They also rigged up barrels full of explosives which they appeared to detonate at the site.

As recently as in the last three months, according to satellite imagery, Islamic State appears to have bulldozed the ziggurat, or step tower, built by Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III in the 9th century BC.

Pictures released by the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Cultural Heritages Initiative showed that between late August and early November the towering remains of the ziggurat had been steadily flattened.

What appeared to be scars from bulldozer shovels were visible, and ASOR said there were also signs of machinery tracks at the temple of Ishtar. A picture which ASOR dated Nov. 4 did, however, show contours of the palace and two temples still visible, suggesting they were not entirely erased.

"It's premature to talk about the extent of damage that has been caused by Daesh," a government archaeological source said.

"After the sites have been completely secured by the army, then we will send the archaeology police to cordon off the sites," the source added. "Then we will send our crews to take images and write a detailed report on the damage."

Nimrud was excavated by a series of archaeological missions since the 19th century including in the 1950s by British archaeologist Max Mallowan, who was accompanied by his wife, detective novelist Agatha Christie.

Her experiences in Iraq, and journeys from Britain to the Middle East, formed the background to several of her books, including Murder on the Orient Express, They Came to Baghdad, and Murder in Mesopotamia. </s> BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq on Friday celebrated the UNESCO World Heritage Committee's decision to name the historic city of Babylon a World Heritage Site in a vote held in Azerbaijan's capital, years after Baghdad began campaigning for the site to be added to the list.

The city on the Euphrates River is about 85 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad and once was a main tourist attraction before Iraq suffered one war after another in the past four decades.

The 4,300-year-old Babylon -- now mainly an archaeological ruin and two important museums -- is where dynasties have risen and fallen since the earliest days of settled human civilization.

King Hammurabi wrote his famous code of laws in Babylon, while Nebuchadnezzar sent his vast army from the city to Jerusalem to put down an uprising and bring the Jews back as slaves.

Some say Alexander the Great, who led his army out of Macedonia to conquer most of the known world, died here in 332 B.C.

Dozens of Iraqis waving their national flag gathered at the Ishtar Gate at the site celebrating their city's new international status.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi described the vote as "another victory for the Iraq of civilizations that was and will always be a lighthouse to the world."

President Barham Saleh tweeted that after Babylon, more ancient sites will be added to the list through which "Iraq will restore that status that it deserves."

Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi and Minister of Culture Abdul-Amir al-Hamadani congratulated the Iraqi people on the announcement.

The vote came years after the Islamic State group damaged another Iraq World Heritage site in the country's north, the ancient city of Hatra. The extremists also destroyed other sites in Iraq, including Nimrud where giant winged bulls that once stood sentry at the nearly 3,000-year-old palace were hacked to pieces.

Along with Babylon and Hatra, Iraq has three other sites of World Heritage, the archaeological city of Samarra in central Iraq, Ashur in the north and the citadel of the northern city of Erbil.

UNESCO said in its statement that Babylon's "remains, outer and inner-city walls, gates, palaces and temples, are a unique testimony to one of the most influential empires of the ancient world."

"The city's association with one of the seven wonders of the ancient world_the Hanging Gardens_has also inspired artistic, popular and religious culture on a global scale," UNESCO said.

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut. </s> Iraqi militiamen, who drove Islamic State fighters from the ancient city of Hatra this week, found that IS had destroyed relics dating back more than 2,000 years.

"The sculptures and engraved images are destroyed, but the walls and towers of the kingdom of Hatra remain standing," said Marwa Rashid, a spokeswoman for Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, a Shi'ite militia that is clearing IS from villages north of Mosul in northern Iraq.

"There are many holes and scratches on the walls of the kingdom due to IS bullets," she said.

PMF units took full control over the historic city, about 110 kilometers southwest of Mosul, after a three-week offensive. Its recapture was a part of a regional military operation known as Muhammad Prophet of God.

Known historically as the ancient city where East meets West, Hatra is a UNESCO-listed World Heritage site and considered one of the archeological jewels of Iraq and capital of the first Arab kingdom. The large fortified site was founded in the 2nd or 3rd century B.C. and once was a thriving city under the influence of the Parthian Empire.

Its high and thick walls, reinforced by towers, helped it withstand invasions by the Romans in the years 116 and 198. Its temples offer a unique blend of Hellenistic and Roman architecture with Eastern decorative features.

The site stood undisturbed for decades until April 2015, when IS invaded it. Citing Hatra's "un-Islamic" nature, IS began destroying relics on the site.

In a video released by IS after its occupation, IS fighters are seen smashing sculptures with sledgehammers and destroying images and artifacts on ancient walls with assault rifles.

UNESCO, the cultural heritage arm of the United Nations, called the destruction a war crime and has urged political and religious leaders in the region to take note.

"The destruction and looting of the remains of the capital of the first Arab kingdom is an immense loss for the Iraqi people and the world. Its liberation marks a positive turning point and paves the way for ensuring its protection and conservation," UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said Thursday.

PMF units said IS had planted land mines around the eastern gates of the site to deter their advances. Engineering teams will clear the site of any explosives before allowing Iraqi archeologists to assess the damage.

"The kingdom of Hatra will be standing high, God willing," Rashid said.

Since mid-2014, IS has destroyed dozens of historic sites in Iraq and Syria, including mosques, churches and Shi'ite religious halls known as hussainiyas. The group says shrines and statues are "false idols" that must be destroyed.

Sermed Alwan, president of the Iraqi Mesopotamian Heritage Association, said the extent of the damage nationwide to ancient sites had yet to be determined. But the initial accounting of the damage in Hatra is heartbreaking, he said.

"The loss of Hatra relics is huge for Iraq and for the international community," he said. </s> Rome, June 20 (IANS/AKI) Italian soldiers in Iraq have helped rebuild an access road to Mosul’s biggest olive grove located close to the war-ravaged northern city’s strategic dam, the army announced on Tuesday.

The road was rebuilt at the request of local Iraqi authorities as part of a project to re-develop the area around Mosul’s 3.6 kilometre-long dam – Iraq’s biggest – which Italian firm Trevi won a contract to repair in 2016.

To rebuild the road, Italian soldiers from the ‘Praesidium’ Task Force shifted large mounds of earth used as fortifications to defend key military positions during IS’s invasion of Mosul.

The dam fell into disrepair during the Islamic State jihadist group’s seizure of Mosul in 2014 and the surrounding area was badly damaged by the protracted battle to retake Iraq’s second city from IS, which ended last year.

Before rebuilding the access road to the olive grove, the Italian soldiers cleared the area of mines and other unexploded devices, also at the request of local authorities, the army said.

‘Praesidium’ is responsible for protecting Mosul’s dam in coordination with local security forces, including Iraq’s counter-terrorism service, the national security service and the Iraqi police.

The task force also guarantees the security of military and civilian personnel attached to rhe United States Army Corps of Engineers as well as that of Trevi employees. </s> MOSUL, Iraq — Iraqi troops entered a town south of Mosul on Sunday where Islamic State militants destroyed artefacts at a nearby ancient Assyrian archaeological site, while special forces fended off suicide bombers during a cautious advance into the northern city.

The push into Nimrud was the most significant gain in several days for government forces, potentially opening up the area for teams to assess the damage done to the famed ruins just outside the town.

Troops are converging from several fronts on Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the biggest urban area under IS control, as part of an offensive launched last month.

The special forces have advanced the farthest so far, and hold a handful of districts on the city’s eastern edge, but their progress has slowed in the face of fierce resistance in dense urban neighborhoods full of civilians.

The operation’s commander said troops took Nimrud, some 19 miles (30 kilometers) south of Mosul, after heavy fighting. It was unclear if they had liberated the nearby 13th-century B.C. archaeological site, which IS destroyed with explosives according to videos they released.

“The 9th division of the Iraqi army has liberated the town of Nimrud completely and raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings after the enemy suffered heavy casualties,” Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Raheed Yar Allah said in a statement.

The late 1980s discovery of treasures in Nimrud’s royal tombs was one of the 20th century’s most significant archaeological finds. The government said militants, who captured the site in June 2014, destroyed it the following year using heavy military vehicles.

Video footage released by the jihadis at the time showed bearded men hammering, bulldozing and ultimately blowing up parts of the ancient Iraqi treasure, ripping down huge alabaster reliefs depicting Assyrian kings and deities. They claim the artefacts promote idolatry that violates their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.

Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces operating the air campaign assisting the operation against IS, said few airstrikes were used near Nimrud, and the advancing Iraqi troops had moved in carefully.

“It’s an important gain,” he said, but warned that IS often leaves behind some combatants. “As Iraqi forces get closer to Mosul, everything becomes more difficult as they like to leave behind a few fighters to spoil the advance.”

In Mosul itself, the special forces said they have cleared the Qadisiya and Zahra neighborhoods, and are planning to advance farther in the coming hours. Over the past week they have inched forward slowly, trying to avoid casualties among their troops and civilians as suicide bombers in armor-plated vehicles charge at them from hideouts in densely populated areas.

“The only weapons they have left are car bombs and explosives,” said Iraqi special forces Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi as he radioed with commanders in the field. “There are so many civilian cars and any one of them could be a bomb,” he said.

Troops were building berms and road blocks to prevent car bombs from breaching the front lines. Since last week’s quick advance into Mosul proper, they have struggled to hold territory under heavy IS counterattacks.

Several suicide car bombers attacked the advancing special forces on Saturday, wounding around a dozen troops, three civilians, and killing a child, officers said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief reporters.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release official casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the operation to liberate the city began on Oct. 17.

Civilians are paying a heavy toll in the battle for Mosul, with nearly 50,000 forced from their homes, most living in displaced persons camps. The Norwegian Refugee Council said Sunday that conditions were worsening for non-combatants, especially over the past week.

“Civilians have told us of horrific stories from inside Mosul,” said Wolfgang Gressmann, the group’s Iraq director. “They have given terrifying accounts of IS moving them from neighborhood to neighborhood, and from house to house, in tactics identical with being used as human shields.”

Meanwhile, a leading U.S.-based rights group released a report alleging that security forces of Iraq’s regional Kurdish government had routinely destroyed Arab homes and even some whole villages in areas retaken from the Islamic State group over the past two years.

The Human Rights Watch report said that between September 2014 and May 2016, Kurdish forces advancing against IS destroyed Arab homes in disputed areas of Kirkuk and Ninevah provinces, while Kurdish homes were left intact. It says the demolitions took place in disputed areas in northern Iraq which the Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region over the objections of the central government.

Sunni Arab politicians have previously accused the Kurds of seeking to recast the demographics of mixed areas in northern Iraq. The struggle is particularly intense in the oil-rich Kirkuk region.

“In village after village in Kirkuk and Ninevah, (Kurdish Regional Government) security forces destroyed Arab homes — but not those belonging to Kurds — for no legitimate military purpose,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “KRG leaders’ political goals don’t justify demolishing homes illegally.”

All sides fighting in the battle for Mosul have been accused of human rights abuses, with the worst allegations attributed to IS.

Kurdish forces have been accused of destroying Arab homes before, with a report last year by Amnesty International alleging that the peshmerga carried out the attacks in retaliation for what they said was the Arab communities’ support for IS.

Kurdish authorities say they abide by human rights laws and deny having any strategy to destroy homes. But they say some villages in which the population fought alongside IS have suffered extensive destruction because of the ferocity of the battles.

“There was a large presence of IEDs placed in these areas,” said Kurdish official Dindar Zebari, referring to Sunday’s report. “I have to say this was a huge cause of the destruction following the liberation process.”

Also Sunday, a wave of attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 23 people and wounded 70 others, inflaming already combustive sectarian tensions in the country.

Police and health officials said many of the attacks struck Shiites on their way to an annual pilgrimage, with the deadliest bombing taking place in Baghdad’s northern Shaab neighborhood. There, an explosives-laden car parked near a checkpoint killed a policeman and two civilians, and wounded 12 others.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

The capital has seen near-daily bombings since the Mosul operation began, but no large-scale attacks. Militants frequently target security forces and the Shiite majority as part of its campaign to destabilize the country.
Deputy tourism and antiquities minister Qais Hussein Rashid unveils a United Nations-brokered plan for "re-constructing touristic, archaeological and heritage sites" damaged by ISIL in Mosul.