Islamic State insurgents have posted a video showing a 3,000-year-old temple being blown up at the Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq, in their latest assault on some of the world's greatest archaeological and cultural treasures.
The United Nations confirmed in a statement that satellite imagery showed "extensive damage to the main entrance" of the temple of Nabu, the Babylonian god of wisdom.
Nimrud was a 13th century BC Assyrian city, located 30 km (20 miles) south of the modern city of Mosul, which the hardline Islamic State militants seized control of in June 2014.
The date of the Islamic State video was unclear and Reuters could not independently verify its authenticity.
It also showed scenes of bulldozers razing the ancient Gate of Nergal, part of the historic Nineveh city wall in Mosul, which was reported earlier this year.
A bearded man in the video said that the destruction was meant to prevent Muslims from returning to idolatry. The group considers all pre-Islamic culture idolatrous, along with any religion outside its own radical interpretation of Sunni Islam.
The clip also features an ISIS fighter vowing to demolish Egypt’s pyramids.
As well as destroying...
