International

A video allegedly showing ISIS militants destroying a historic city in northern Iraq dating back to the 13th century B.C. using sledgehammers, drills and barrel bombs, has emerged this morning.

ISIS fighters can be seen hammering and drilling away at sculptures and stone slabs believed to be some 3,000 years old in the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, located near the Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul.

The seven-minute expertly edited video, purportedly shows Islamic State destroying the relics before bulldozing and blowing up the ruins, completely obliterating the historic site.

The destruction at Nimrud, which took place last month, follows other attacks on cultural heritage sites carried out by the Islamic State, which now holds a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared caliphate.

A bulldozer brings down walls, while militants fill barrels with explosives and later destroy three separate areas of the site in massive explosions.

'God has honored us in the Islamic State to remove all of these idols and statutes worshipped instead of Allah in the past days,' one militant says in the video.

Another militant vows that 'whenever we seize a piece of land, we will remove signs of idolatry and spread monotheism.'

It is believed parts of the footage may be from a nearby site as some of the figures in the Nimrud video appears to have rebar, ribbed steel bars designed to reinforce concrete that are a technique of modern building.

However, an Iraqi Antiquities Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all the items at Nimrud were authentic.

When the destruction was first reported several weeks ago a Mosul tribal leader confirmed that SIIS had 'looted the valuables in Nimrud and then proceeded to level the site to the ground. There used to be statues and walls as well as a castle that Islamic State has destroyed completely.'

'In a new crime in their series of reckless offenses they assaulted the ancient city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy machinery, appropriating archaeological attractions dating back 13 centuries BC,' the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO said in a statement last month.

UNESCO head Irina Bokova added: 'This is yet another attack against the Iraqi people, reminding us that nothing is safe from the cultural cleansing under way in the country: it targets human lives, minorities, and is marked by the systematic destruction of humanity's ancient heritage,' she said

Islamic State militants have been destroying ancient relics on several sites, saying they promote idolatry that violate their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law, including the ancient Iraqi city of Hatra, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Authorities also believe they've sold others on the black market to fund their atrocities.

This is only the most recent proof of Islamic State fighters destroying invaluable heritage sites.

A shocking video emerged last week, showing ISIS militants using sledgehammers and AK-47 rifles to destroy walls and statues in Iraq's UNESCO World Heritage city of Hatra.

In the slickly produced seven minute footage, jihadists are shown smashing shrines and statues in the 2,000-year old city.

Militants are also recorded chipping away at the bases of some of the larger wall sculptures and cracking boulders into ancient city pillars, while eerie music plays in the background.

The video cuts to jihadists speaking directly to the camera with one declaring they destroyed the site because it is 'worshipped instead of God'.

Last month, ISIS terrorists were pictured toppling crosses, smashing Christian relics with hammers and erecting the black flag of ISIS on churches in Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire.