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BAGHDAD Iraq's government is investigating reports that theancientarchaeological site of Khorsabad in northern Iraq is the latest to be attacked by theIslamicStatemilitant group.

Adel Shirshab, the country's tourism and antiquities minister, told The Associated Press there are concerns the militants will remove artifacts and damage the site, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Mosul. Saeed Mamuzini, a Kurdish official from Mosul, told the AP that the militants had already begun demolishing the Khorsabad site on Sunday, citing multiple witnesses.

On Friday, the group razed 3,000-year old Nimrud and on Saturday, they bulldozed 2,000-year old Hatra both UNESCO world heritage sites. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has called the destruction a "war crime," and a statement by his spokesman on Sunday night said Ban was "outraged by the continuing destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq" by theIslamicStategroup.

Khorsabad was constructed as a new capital of Assyria by King Sargon II shortly after he came to power in 721 B.C. and abandoned after his death in 705 B.C. It features a 24-meter thick wall with a stone foundation and seven gates.

Since it was a single-era capital, few objects linked to Sargon II himself were found. However, the site is renowned for shedding light on Assyrian art and architecture.

The sculptured stone slabs that once lined the palace walls are now displayed in museums in Baghdad, Paris, London and Chicago.

TheIslamicStategroup currently controls about a third of Iraq and Syria. The Sunni extremist group has been campaigning to purgeancientrelics they say promote idolatry that violates their fundamentalist interpretation ofIslamiclaw. A video released last week shows them smashing artifacts in the Mosul museum and in January, the group burned hundreds of books from the Mosul library and Mosul University, including many rare manuscripts.

At a press conference earlier Sunday, Shirshab said they have called for an extraordinary session of the U.N. Security Council to address the crisis in Iraq.

"The world should bear the responsibility and put an end to the atrocities of the militants, otherwise I think the terrorist groups will continue with their violent acts," he said.

Continued here:
Iraq investigates reports of third ancient site looted by ISIS militants

TIKRIT, Iraq, March 2 (UPI) -- Iraq has launched a military offensive against the Islamic State to gain control of the strategic city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.

Iraqi security forces are attacking from different fronts in the large-scale offensive in the city about 90 miles north of Baghdad. Tikrit and Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, fell into Islamic State capture last summer.

About 20,000 government troops and 4,500 militia members, mostly Shiite members but also some Sunni, are participating in the attack and the Iraqi military is nearing the heart of the city, according to BBC News.

Airstrikes are being conducted against the IS and many of its militants have retreated from areas surrounding Tikrit.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said it was the "last chance" for Sunni tribal fighters to abandon support of the Islamic State in Tikrit. Sunni insurgents began to support IS after months of protesting a Shiite-led government.

Former loyalists to Saddam Hussein also joined the Islamic State's efforts.

"I call upon those who have been misled or committed a mistake to lay down arms and join their people and security forces in order to liberate their cities," al-Abadi said Sunday during a news conference.

Reclaiming Tikrit is a strategic first step in retaking the Islamic State stronghold in northern Iraq -- Mosul, which was populated with more than a million people before it fell to IS capture.

U.S. military officials said the operation to retake Mosul could begin as early as April, depending on the degree of preparation by Iraqi security forces.

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Originally posted here:
Iraq begins offensive against Islamic State to recapture Tikrit

KIRKUK, Iraq Shiite prayers billow from a mosque loudspeaker at a sprawling Iraqi military base on the fringes of the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk as Shiite militiamen, most of them in mismatched military fatigues, shuttle back and forth to nearby front-lines, eager for a taste of victory against the Islamic State group.

When ISIS militants blitzed across northern and western Iraq last year, tens of thousands of Shiite men answered a call-to-arms by the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to defend the nation against the Sunni extremists.

Now the Shiite militiamen have arrived in Kirkuk, long one of Iraq's most hotly disputed territories, and have made a string of bases just six miles from the city their home. A marriage of convenience has since emerged with Iraq's strained Kurdish forces, which had been exclusively in charge of the city since last year when they repelled ISIS advances.

As they face a common enemy, the unexpected and often uncomfortable alliance between the Kurdish and Shiite rivals is on display. The friction is feeding the combustible inter-ethnic competition over who will ultimately get control of the city.

The Shiite fighters, officially known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, were instrumental in helping the Iraqi military which dissolved in the face of the militants' initial onslaught in northern Iraq stall the ISIS push outside Baghdad. They have also teamed up with Kurdish peshmerga fighters in a number of battles, breaking the siege of the northern Shiite-majority town of Amirli in August, and recently, driving Islamic State militants out of a string of towns in Diyala province, northeast of the Iraqi capital.

But their arrival in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, has provoked deep-rooted sensitivities. Kurdish forces claimed control of Kirkuk just days after the Islamic State group swept across northern Iraq, seizing major cities, including Mosul and Tikrit. Kirkuk, located along the fluid line that separates Kurdish northern Iraq from the rest of the country, is home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, and all have competing claims to the area. The Kurds have long wanted to incorporate the city into their semi-autonomous region, but Arabs and Turkmen oppose this.

The Kurdish troops held their ground, but ISIS attempted a comeback. With what the Kurds say was assistance from a Sunni sleeper cell in the city, Islamic State extremists stormed an abandoned Kirkuk hotel last month, then staged a surprise attack on a Kurdish peshmerga outpost, killing a top commander and several of his troops.

The apparently coordinated attack was a blow to the Kurds and underscored their tenuous hold on the city, while the semi-autonomous Kurdish government appealed for more weapons and training from the U.S.-led coalition forces.

Since then, thousands of fighters from a handful of militias such as the powerful Iran-backed Badr Brigades, have flooded into Kirkuk and the surrounding Tamim province.

Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim welcomed the Shiite forces but Massoud Barzani , the president of the Kurdish regional government, insisted that the Shiite militiamen would be "prohibited under any circumstances" from entering the city.

Originally posted here:
Iraq's Shiite militias rush to defend oil-rich Kirkuk from Islamic State

FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014 file photo, Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen fire at Islamic State group positions during an operation outside Amirli, some 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightening advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. Here are the groups involved in the anti-Islamic State war in Iraq and what they each hope to accomplish. (AP Photo, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Saturday, June 21, 2014 file photo, volunteers in the newly formed "Peace Brigades" raise their weapons and chant slogans against the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant during a parade in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightening advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. Here are the groups involved in the anti-Islamic State war in Iraq and what they each hope to accomplish.(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Thursday, July 3, 2014 file photo, a member of an elite unit of women Kurdish Peshmerga fighters trains in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightening advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. Here are the groups involved in the anti-Islamic State war in Iraq and what they each hope to accomplish. (AP Photo, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 24, 2014 file photo, members of an Iraqi volunteer force put on their newly issued boots in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightening advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. Here are the groups involved in the anti-Islamic State war in Iraq and what they each hope to accomplish. (AP Photo/Ahmed al-Husseini, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Monday, June 16, 2014 file photo, Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now called the Islamic State group, in Basra, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightning advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. (AP Photo/Nabil Al-Jurani, File)(The Associated Press)

KIRKUK, Iraq Shiite Arab militias have flooded into northern Iraq's Kirkuk region to help Kurdish forces battle the Islamic State group, but their uneasy alliance threatens to reignite a much older conflict over the oil-rich area pitting the largely autonomous Kurds against the Arab-led government in Baghdad.

All across Iraq, the rapid advance by the Islamic State extremists over the past year has drawn longtime rivals into reluctant alliances. The shared struggle could with time help Iraqis forge a long-elusive sense of national unity. But it also risks papering over disputes that could burst into the open if the threat subsides.

Here are some of the strange bedfellows in Iraq's fight against the Islamic State group.

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War on Islamic State group makes for uneasy alliances in divided Iraq

Iraqi officials claim IS bulldozed ancient city of Nimrud
IS #39;bulldozed #39; ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, Iraq says Daily Mail - 5 hours ago IS "assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles," the ... An Iraqi antiquities...

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