国际英语新闻:Iraqi Fighters Drive Islamic State Out of Key Town

Nimrud lies about 30 km (18 miles) southeast of Mosul, where an Islamic State video released last week showed jihadists rampaging through the prized Mosul Museum. They knocked over ancient statues and some replicas, smashing them with sledgehammers and drills. The wreckage included an artifact, dating back nearly 3,000 years, of an Assyrian winged-bull deity.

In the five-minute video, a jihadist announces: "Oh, Muslims, these artifacts behind me are idols for people from ancient times who worshipped them instead of God. The prophet removed and buried the idols in Mecca with his blessed hands. Our prophet ordered us to remove all these statues as his followers did when they conquered nations."

The Mosul attack sparked global outrage.

Archaeologists had feared Nimrud would be next on the jihadist list. Occupied from prehistoric times, the Assyrian city reached its zenith during the reign of King Ashurnasirpal II between 883 and 859 B.C. He made it the capital of the Assyrian Empire. It was known then as Kalhu and appears in the Old Testament as Calah.

British archeologist Henry Layard undertook the first formal excavations at Nimrud, working on the site in the mid-19th century. Sir Max Mallowan, husband of popular mystery writer Agatha Christie, later was among the Western and Arab archeologists working on the site. 

Christie made several visits to the site when Mallowan led excavations there between 1949 and 1963. He found thousands of ivory plaques and figures predating 700 B.C. Most of those ivories, including many made in Egypt and the Levant, were transferred to the British Museum. Christie had cleaned some of them, explaining in her autobiography her method of using a fine knitting needle, an orange stick and face cream.

Nimrud enchanted the author, who described it as a beautiful spot.

"The Tigris was just a mile away, and on the great mound of the Acropolis, big stone Assyrian heads poked out of the soil," Christie wrote. “In one place there was the enormous wing of a great genie. It was a spectacular stretch of country – peaceful, romantic and impregnated with the past."

IS claims 'idol worship'

It is the past the jihadists are intent on wiping out. Since the militants last year seized swaths of land in Iraq and Syria, they have attacked archaeological and religious sites, claiming these promote apostasy and amount to idol worship.

Now archeologists fear the militants will turn their attention to Hatra, an ancient fortified city dating to the 3rd century B.C. and lying 110 kilometers southwest of Mosul. UNESCO describes the World Heritage site as the capital of the "first Arab Kingdom."

Last year, the militants blew up the Mosque of the Prophet Younis (Jonah) and the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis; two ancient shrines in Mosul. They have also threatened to destroy Mosul’s 850-year-old Crooked Minaret, but locals so far have prevented that from happening.

Last week, Iraq’s National Museum in Baghdad opened its doors to the public for the first time in more than a decade. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the move was intended to defy efforts “to destroy the heritage of mankind and Iraq’s civilization.”

Bokova said UNESCO "is determined to do whatever is needed to document and protect the heritage of Iraq and lead the fight against the illicit traffic of cultural artifacts, which directly contributes to the financing of terrorism."