The United Nations Security Council on Friday condemned the most recent "barbaric terrorist acts" in Iraq by Islamic State (Daesh) militants, including the destruction of invaluable religious and cultural artifacts.
In a video published by Daesh on Thursday, men are seen destroying ancient Assyrian statues and sculptures, some of which have since been identified as antiquities from the 7th century BC, with sledgehammers and drills, exclaiming that they were symbols of idolatry.
"The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the ongoing barbaric terrorist acts in Iraq by ISIL (ISIS)" the council said in a statement. It once again stated that the group "must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence, and hatred it espouses must be stamped out."
A few of Daesh’s recent atrocities which the 15-nation council cited were the abduction of 100 Sunni tribesmen from outside Tikrit, the immolation of 45 Iraqis in addition to the daily attacks targeting civilians in Baghdad.
It furthermore condemned "the deliberate destruction of irreplaceable religious and cultural artifacts housed in the Mosul Museum and burning of thousands of books and rare manuscripts from the Mosul Library."
Daesh reportedly earns a significant amount of money through the black market trading of antiquities acquired in its occupied territories, prompting the Security Council to ban all trade in antiquities from Syria earlier this month.
The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, also condemned the destruction of artifacts in the Mosul Museum.
"I condemn this as a deliberate attack against Iraq's millennial history and culture, and as an inflammatory incitement to violence and hatred," she said in a statement.
