Iraq: Iraqi troops recapture Mosul museum and Government buildings from ISIS
Iraqi troops have recaptured the Mosul Museum from ISIS. The institution was made infamous in 2015 thanks to footage of Islamic militants smashing priceless artifacts and exhibits. Government forces also retook the main government building complex and the central bank branch in northern city of the embattled country.
According to Agence France Presse, Lieutenant General Raed Shakir Jawdat confirmed in a statement that his men “recaptured the archeological museum,” adding that ISIS “stole the artifacts and completely destroyed the museum.”
Video footage of ISIS militants destroying the museum’s collection of 3,000-year-old Assyrian sculptures and other artifacts using power tools, hammers, and pickaxes in 2015 shocked the world. The destruction was part of the Islamic State’s effort to systematically obliterate the region’s cultural heritage. At the time, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova compared the destruction to the “cultural cleansing” of Iraq.