BAGHDAD — The Islamic State militant group attacked the ancient archaeological site of Nimrud in northern Iraq and damaged it with heavy vehicles, Iraq’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said Thursday. 
 
 It was the latest in a series of attacks on ancient structures and artifacts in Syria and Iraq that the group has destroyed in the name of its harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Last week, Islamic State militants videotaped themselves destroying statues and artifacts in the Mosul Museum and at the Nergal Gate entryway to ancient Nineveh. The militants captured the city during its offensive blitz through much of Iraq last June. “The terrorist gangs of ISIS are continuing to defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity after they committed a new crime that belongs to its idiotic series,” the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page, referring to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. 
 
 Nimrud is the sprawling site of a city founded by the Assyrian King Shalamansar I, who died in 1245 B.C. Among the most impressive objects at Nimrud are the colossal statues known as “lamassu,” mythological creatures that depict either lions or winged bulls with bearded human heads. Pairs of the 17-ton statues are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum. ||||| Baghdad (AFP) - Condemnation poured in Friday of the Islamic State group's bulldozing of the ancient city of Nimrud, the jihadists' latest attack on Iraqi cultural treasures that the UN termed a "war crime". 
 
 After rampaging through Mosul's museum with sledgehammers and torching its library last month, IS "bulldozed" the nearby ruins of Nimrud Thursday, the tourism and antiquities ministry said. 
 
 The devastation comes with the jihadists the target of an Iraqi government offensive. 
 
 The US military said Friday Iraqi government forces and allied tribal militia have retaken the town of Al-Baghdadi, from where jihadists had threatened to attack an airbase housing American troops. 
 
 Iraqi antiquities officials said IS militants had moved trucks last week to the Nimrud site overlooking the Tigris River, 30 kilometres (18 miles) southeast of their main hub of Mosul. 
 
 "Until now, we do not know to what extent it was destroyed," one official said. 
 
 Washington's National Security Council tweeted Friday: "Deeply saddened by incomprehensible destruction of historical, cultural and religious artifacts in Iraq, including recent attacks in Nimrud." 
 
 View gallery An Islamic State group militant is shown destroying a statue of an Assyrian diety in the Iraqi Gover … 
 
 Nimrud was the latest victim of what appears to be a systematic campaign by the jihadists to obliterate Iraq's rich heritage. 
 
 "I'm really devastated. But it was just a matter of time, now we're waiting for the video. It's sad," Abdulamir Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist from Stony Brook University in New York, said of the propaganda film of the destruction that IS is likely to release. 
 
 Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC and was considered the jewel of the Assyrian era. 
 
 Its stunning reliefs and colossal statues of winged bulls with human heads guarding palace gates filled the world's museums in the 19th century. 
 
 A collection of 613 pieces of gold jewellery, ornaments and precious stones discovered in a royal tomb in 1988 has been described as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. 
 
 - 'Hatra next' - 
 
 View gallery An image grab taken from a propaganda video uploaded on June 11, 2014 by the Islamic State jihadist … 
 
 "Their plan is to destroy Iraqi heritage, one site at a time," said Hamdani. 
 
 "Hatra of course will be next," he added of a 2,000-year-old UNESCO-listed site about 100 kilometres south of Mosul known for its beautifully preserved temples blending Hellenistic, Roman and Eastern influences. 
 
 Irina Bokova, the head of the UN's cultural body UNESCO, condemned the destruction of Nimrud "with the strongest force". 
 
 "We cannot stay silent. The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage constitutes a war crime, and I call on all political and religious leaders in the region to stand up against this new barbarity," she said Friday. 
 
 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, also calling the destruction a war crime, urged political and religious leaders in the region to speak out in condemnation of "these unacceptable attacks". 
 
 UNESCO has called for tougher action to protect the many heritage sites in one of the cradles of civilisation, but little can be done in areas under jihadist control. 
 
 View gallery Displaced Assyrians who fled their home towns due to Islamic State group attacks against their commu … 
 
 The Cairo-based Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's leading authority, expressed outrage at what it termed "a major crime against the entire world." 
 
 Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric who is revered by millions, sharply criticised IS's targeting of the Mosul museum and archaeological sites. 
 
 - 'Savagery, barbarism' - 
 
 It demonstrates "their savagery and their barbarism and their hostility to the Iraqi people", Sistani's representative said on his behalf at weekly Friday prayers in Karbala. 
 
 The destruction was met with condemnation and sadness on Baghdad's Mutanabi Street, a favourite haunt of Iraqi intellectuals. 
 
 "After they killed the human spirit, they began killing civilisation," Ibrahim Dawood, a writer and poet, said of IS. 
 
 IS tries to justify the destruction by saying the statues are idolatrous, but experts say the jihadists traffic antiquities to fund their self-proclaimed "caliphate" and destroy only those pieces that are too bulky to be smuggled. 
 
 Stuart Gibson, a UNESCO expert on museums, said pressure from the international community would have little effect on IS. 
 
 "Unfortunately today the people in the region are exhausted and terrified. The remainder of us can only stand on the outside looking on in absolute despair," he said. 
 
 IS still controls large parts of northern and western Iraq, but has been losing ground under mounting military pressure from Iraqi federal and Kurdish forces backed by a US-led coalition and by Iran. 
 
 Baghdad launched a huge offensive Monday to retake the city of Tikrit, in what commanders have said was a stepping stone toward an even larger operation to free Mosul. 
 
 Iraqi forces also battled IS in the strategic town of Dawr on Friday as they pressed their offensive, Iraqi officials said. 
 
 Dawr, on one of the main roads Iraqi forces are taking to reach Tikrit, needs to be captured for the anti-IS offensive to move forward. 
 
 Since they swept through Iraq's Sunni heartland last June, IS has destroyed a long list of religious and heritage sites, including churches and Sunni shrines. ||||| BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State militants "bulldozed" the ancient Nimrud archaeological site near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday using heavy military vehicles, the government said. 
 
 A statement from Iraq's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities didn't elaborate on the extent of the damage, saying only that the group continues to "defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity" with this latest act. 
 
 Nimrud is a 13th century B.C. Assyrian archaeological site located on the Tigris River just south of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, which was captured by the Islamic State group in June. The extremists, who control a third of Iraq and Syria, have attacked other archaeological and religious sites, claiming that they promote apostasy. 
 
 Earlier this week a video emerged on militant websites showing Islamic State militants with sledgehammers destroying ancient artifacts at the Mosul museum, sparking global outrage. 
 
 Last year, the militants destroyed the Mosque of the Prophet Younis — or Jonah — and the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis, two revered ancient shrines in Mosul. They also threatened to destroy Mosul's 850-year old Crooked Minaret, but local residents surrounded the structure, preventing the militants from approaching. 
 
 Iraq's national museum in Baghdad opened its doors to the public last week for the first time in 12 years in a move Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said was to defy efforts "to destroy the heritage of mankind and Iraq's civilization." 
 
 The Islamic State group has imposed a harsh and violent version of Islamic law in the territories it controls and has terrorized religious minorities. It has released gruesome videos online showing the beheading of captives, including captured Western journalists and aid workers. 
 
 A U.S.-led coalition has been striking the group since August, and Iraqi forces launched an offensive this week to try to retake the militant-held city of Tikrit, on the main road linking Baghdad to Mosul.
– ISIS continues to take a sledgehammer to history: Iraqi officials say militants from the Islamic State have begun bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, reports AP. The city sprang up on the Tigris River in the 13th century BC and is "considered one of the most important archaeological operations in the world," notes the New York Times. The destruction—the extent of it isn't yet clear—follows the release of a video last week showing militants destroying artifacts at the Mosul Museum. "I'm sorry to say everybody was expecting this," an Iraqi archaeologist at Stony Brook University tells AFP. "Their plan is to destroy Iraqi heritage, one site at a time." Abdulamir Hamdani predicted that the city of Hatra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, would be next. "I'm devastated, but it was just a matter of time." In the video from the museum, one militant attempts to explain the destruction: "These artifacts behind me are idols for people from ancient times who worshiped them instead of God."