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The Islamic State jihadist group began bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq on Thursday, the tourism and antiquities ministry said. IS "assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles," the ministry said on an official Facebook page, the group's latest attack on the country's historical heritage.

Armed with sledgehammers, chisels and a video camera, ISIS militants took their propaganda campaign to Mosul museum last month, destroying statues and artifacts, dating back to the ancient Assyrian and Akkadian empires, and posting the results online and in slow motion. The terror group’s impetuous destruction of statues and artefacts in Iraq’s second city, which it has controlled since its march across the Sunni-majority northern regions of Iraq last summer, has caused dismay within the archaeological community.

Screen Capture A video showing Islamic State militants with sledgehammers and power drills on a rampage inside the Mosul Museum shows the destruction of both reproductions and priceless originals from at least two important eras in the region’s history, said a British expert on Iraqi culture. Paul Collins, of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, in an email to Aleteia, said it was “distressing” to watch scenes of the destruction of colossal winged bulls of the seventh century BC. “These are certainly the real things and it looks from the video that the sculptures are those situated outside...

Iraqi officials in the northern city of Mosul said Saturday that militants with the Islamic State group have begun demolishing the ancient archaeological site of Hatra in northern Iraq in a push to rid its territory of symbols it says promote idolatry. An official with the ministry of tourism and antiquities' archaeological division in Mosul told The Associated Press that multiple residents living near Hatra heard two large explosions this morning, then reported seeing bulldozers begin demolishing the site. He spoke anonymously for fear of reprisal.

BAGHDAD - Islamic State militants in northern Iraq have destroyed a collection of statues and sculptures dating back thousands of years, according to a video published online in the name of the radical Islamist group. The video showed the statues, some identified as antiquities from Iraq's 7th century BC Assyrian era, being toppled, smashed and broken up by sledgehammer. A man shown in the video said they were being destroyed because they promoted idolatry. "The Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him," the unidentified man...

While the world was watching the Academy Awards ceremony, the people of Mosul were watching a different show. They were horrified to see ISIS members burn the Mosul public library. Among the many thousands of books it housed, more than 8,000 rare old books and manuscripts were burned.

Last week, al-Baghdadi’s men returned to the Mosul Museum. They broke the lock to the storage rooms, and they have occupied the building ever since. “They say they are awaiting instructions from their guide [al-Baghdadi] to destroy these statues,” says Rashid, the National Museum director who is in touch with the local staff. Typically, al-Baghdadi is looking for the moment when he can get the most global attention “We as Iraqis are incapable of controlling the situation by ourselves,” Abbas Qureishi, director of the “recovery” program for the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told me. It’s not just a...

The leader of the Muslim group who defended ISIS executioner Mohammed Emwazi has sparked further outrage after he refused to condemn the stoning women. Asim Qureshi, the director of Cage, was last night quizzed about extremist positions advocated by Muslim scholars - including female genital mutilation, domestic violence and stoning as a punishment for adultery. But Mr Qureshi, appearing on the BBC's This Week programme, failed to speak out against the practices - while also defending the right of Muslims to wage jihad. It comes after he defended the London-raised fanatic Emwazi - unmasked as the infamous fanatic 'Jihadi John'...

President Barack Obama is a Muslim and Islamic jihadist who "hates America" and has no ties to Christian ideals, former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Victoria Jackson tells "The Steve Malzberg Show." "Of course, he hates America, he's not even American. His formative years were in Indonesia and he was a Muslim. It says it on his school records," Jackson said Friday on the Newsmax TV program.

Muslim Leader Who Called Israel a ‘Suspect’ After 9/11 Meets with Biden at White House Critics call Salam Al-Marayati anti-Israel and soft on terrorism BY: Adam Kredo February 18, 2015 5:00 am A controversial U.S. Muslim leader who has been highly critical of Israel and said that the Jewish state should be on the “suspect list” in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks participated on Tuesday in a White House summit on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) that featured Vice President Joe Biden. Salam Al-Marayati, founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), tweeted out a photo of himself at...

YOUNG Australian jihadi brides are now being traded as sex slaves by terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, intelligence ­officials have revealed. Other young women captured by Islamic State fighters were also being bought and sold for as little as $100 each. The publication of an IS document revealing a price list by age for buying women has prompted intelligence officials to warn that young Australian women risked being sold into sexual slavery. It is known several Australian women who had gone to Syria had now become slaves of the terrorist group after their partners were killed. ... They are...

Paris authorities found kiddie porn on the computers of two of the Paris Islamist killers. IBT reported: As French authorities continue their hunt for possible accomplices of the Islamist extremist gunmen who killed 17 people over three days in Paris last week, it has emerged two of the attackers were found in possession of paedo-pornographic material during an earlier anti-terrorism investigation. In 2010, a police search of the computers of Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly revealed traces of child porn images the two men had stored and later erased, French media reported. The two were under investigation for their alleged...

Hot off the heels of releasing a guide on how to properly handle sex slaves, the Islamic State (ISIS) has begun distributing a handbook titled Sister’s Role in Jihad, designed to teach women how to properly indoctrinate their children to fully commit to the cause of jihadist terrorism. The guide, discovered and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), instructs jihadist mothers to start young, lest the child grow older and less susceptible to a full commitment to the Islamic State. The guide specifically calls for teaching children the importance of waging jihad “while they are babies” because...

My jihadi son should be executed: Father of UK Islamic State fanatic 'who was part of ISIS death squad' that beheaded 17 Syrian soldiers disowns him after video British ISIS jihadist Nasser Muthana should face death, his father said Muthana is thought to be one of the killers in a sick ISIS beheading video Medical student from Cardiff 'must face up to what he has done' says father David Cameron claimed 'sick terrorists' could face charges of treason The British medical student suspected of involvement in an Islamic State death squad should face execution himself, his father said yesterday. Nasser...

Reports coming in from Canada of shooting at the Library of Parliament. One shooter reported captured. Unconfirmed reports of one dead. Police looking for more shooters, but not sure if more.

The young women from Britain, France and elsewhere are typically ensnared by older women who befriend the girls and convince them they will be taking an active role in a holy war. ‘As soon as they manage to snare a girl, they do everything they can to keep her,’ says the brother of one such teen. They are the brides of an Islamic Frankenstein. Hundreds of teenage girls from Britain, France and elsewhere in Europe have been lured to Syria to serve as spouses for Al Qaeda terrorists and other jihadists fighting there, according to published reports Friday. Many of...

The 23-year-old was reported missing Sept. 18 by his brother. He was last seen at home the night before by his roommates. He is a student of electrical engineering and has been studying in the United States since 2010. His brother says around the time of his disappearance Alkadi sold one of his cars, an Audi S-5, via Craigslist. The vehicle has a suggested retail price of roughly $52,000. Police have since found the vehicle and said the buyer is not linked to the CSUN student’s disappearance, The Associated Press reported.

The man accused of beheading a great-grandmother in her back garden is a would-be cage fighter who converted to Islam five years ago, it has emerged. Nicholas Salvadore, 25, was charged late on Friday with the murder of 82-year-old Palmira Silva, who was hacked to death in an apparently random attack on Thursday afternoon. Mr Salvadore was also charged with assaulting a police officer. Mrs Silva is understood to have been attacked by a suspect who had argued with his flatmates minutes earlier, prompting them to flee in terror in a car as he smashed one of its windows. The...

French Ex-Hostage Identifies Captor in Syria PARIS — Sep 6, 2014, A French journalist held hostage for months by extremists in Syria says one of his captors was a Frenchman suspected of killing four people at the Brussels Jewish Museum earlier this year. French magazine Le Point on Saturday quoted its reporter Nicolas Henin as saying he was tortured by Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman who had spent time with extremists in Syria. Henin was held for a time with American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, both beheaded by extremists from the Islamic State group in recent weeks. He was...

<p>He was the second known American killed while fighting for ISIS in Syria, and the second from Minnesota — and a Fox 9 exclusive uncovering his employment history is raising a few eyebrows.</p> <p>An airport is probably the last place anyone would want a suspected terrorist to work, but before he died overseas, that’s exactly what Abdirahmaan Muhumed did in the Twin Cities. In fact, he may have cleaned your plane at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.</p>