By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A video released by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) shows militants using power tools and bulldozers to deface and destroy monuments in the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq, before the site was completely destroyed with explosives. The video comes only a week after another video showed the destruction of the UNESCO cite at the Ancient city of Hatra. Damage to Nimrud was first reported in March but the new video shows the full scale of the destruction of the historic cultural site which has stood for more than 3,000 years surviving countless conflicts and regimes.

Nimrud, which was once the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire and a major Assyrian city from about 1250BC to 610BC, is located 20 miles south of the modern city of Mosul and is just 3 miles outside the small village of Selamiyah, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered one of most important archaeological sites in Iraq. Nimrud was first excavated by modern archeologists in the 19th century when many of its artifacts were removed from their homeland and transported to Europe’s largest museums including the British Museum and the Louver, Sadly these artifacts that were once stolen from Nimrud and the Iraqi are now among the only surviving artifacts from the city following its horrific destruction.

Flashpoint Intelligence, a global security firm, could not confirm that the site shown in the video is in fact the ancient city of Nimrud. However, the organization said “online chatter does seem to corroborate the claims, and the rest of the video does follow the group’s pattern of destroying ‘idols,’ as they call it.” If confirmed, this destruction of cultural sites that belong not only to the people of Iraq but all of humanity, is a crime under international law. The loss of the city of Nimrud is a tragedy not only for the people of Iraq but for humanity, the city represents the cultural achievements of Ancient Mesopotamia, considered by many to be the birthplace of both agriculture and western civilization

ISIS has targeted several other Assyrian sites in Iraq and destroyed countless manuscripts, books and other artefacts that they have declared to be un-Islamic and blasphemous. The group recently destroyed a library in Mosul that contained more than 8,000 ancient manuscripts Irinia Bokova, the director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, (UNESCO) has previous condemned the destruction of key historical sites by ISIS saying that the “deliberate destruction of cultural heritage constitutes a war crime.”

Earlier this year’s ISIS supports claimed they were ordered by the Profit to commit these acts of Iconoclasm, the deliberate destruction of cultural and religious idols of other cultures, saying, “the Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him.” While the militants claim their actions are motivated by a desire to destroy what it sees as idolatry ISIS itself does not destroy all artifacts its encounters, instead the illegal looting and selling of antiquities is a primary source of ISIS funding.

For more information please see:

NBC News – ISIS Video Shows Apparent Destruction of Nimrud Archaeological Site – 12 April 2015

The Jerusalem Post – WATCH: ISIS Razes Ancient City in Latest Bid to Erase ‘Un-Islamic’ History – 12 April 2015

USA Today – Video Purports To Show ISIL Destroying Ancient City of Nimrud – 12 April 2015

The Guardian – Isis Video Confirms Destruction at UNESCO World Heritage Site in Hatra – 5 April 2015

 

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the Syrian Civil War using a network of sources on the ground in Syria, reported Sunday that at least nine people, including five children were killed by airstrikes which hit a school in the rebel-held area of Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo. Regime forces have denied the report saying that the army had stepped up attacks on rebels since the insurgents bombarded a government-held residential area in the northwestern city on Saturday. But he said the military had not targeted civilians.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in the United Kingdom, released a video it says shows the aftermath of the deadly attack. In the video a man is seen holding what he says is the severed lower leg and foot of a young child, and rescue workers were shown carrying away what appeared to be a body wrapped in a sheet. According to the Observatory, at least 32 people were killed in Aleppo on Saturday, 17 of them in the government-held district of Suleimaniyah bombarded by rebels, and 15 of them in an army air strike that later hit a market in a rebel-held area. The organization added that a number of people were seriously wounded and the death toll is likely to rise.

The airstrikes that hit the school came just a day after the monitoring group and Syrian state rune media (SANA) reported shelling by Syrian rebels on a government-held neighborhood in Aleppo. Footage aired on Syrian state television on Saturday showing damaged buildings and injured people being treated at an overcrowded local hospital.

State TV media reported the shelling targeted the predominantly Christian and Armenian neighborhood of Suleimaniyah in Aleppo killing nine people and wounding 50. SANA also reported that several buildings were severely damaged and people were likely still trapped under the ruble.

Just hours after the shelling Syrian helicopters gunships targeted a market in Aleppo’s rebel-held neighborhood of Maadi in an apparent retaliation by the Syrian government, according to both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the opposition-run Aleppo Media Centre. The Observatory reported that ten people were killed in the attack and dozens more were badly injured.

Aleppo has a major frontline in the four-year-old Syrian civil war, a conflict that has killed an estimated 220,000 people. The city, 30 miles from the Turkish border, is divided between government and rebel control.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – ‘Children Killed’ In Syria’s Aleppo School Bombing – April 12, 2015

Al Arabiya – Five Children Dead in Air Strike on School in Syria’s Aleppo – 12 April 2015

Reuters – Monitor Says Syrian Army Bombs Aleppo School – 12 April 2015

Sky News Australia – Nine People Killed During Syria Air Strikes – 12 April 2015

 

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has begun an urgent mission to Syria in response to growing concerns over the health and safety of thousands of Palestinian refugees and Syrian civilians living in the Yarmouk refugee camp which has been overrun in recent days by militants loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General for the agency in the Near East, is visiting Yarmouk to assess the situation in the camp, hear from refugees affected by the violence, and consult with leaders on how to get desperately needed aid to people in need. A statement by The United Nations relief and works agency said: “Never has the hour been more desperate in the Palestine refugee camp of Yarmouk. We demand humanitarian access and the establishment of secure conditions under which we can deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance and that enable civilians to be evacuated.”

Since 1 April, Yarmouk has been the scene of intense fighting between a number of armed groups including ISIS which has made it virtually impossible for civilians to leave the camp located near Damascus. Yarmouk is the largest Palestinian camp in Syria and has been home to several generations of refugees. The camp has been a frequent battlezone in the Syrian Civil war, today just 16,000 residents remain in the settlement, down from a high 200,000 before the war. Most of the residents of the camp fled to nearby Lebanon where they now live in overcrowded refugee camps becoming refugees for at least a second time. Some have attempted to flee on dangerous migrant boats to Europe and Egypt.

“It’s beyond a nightmare,” said Salim Salamah, a former resident of the Yarmouk refugee camp who now leads the Palestinian League for Human Rights and speaks daily to people still living in the camp. Camp residents who have reached out to the outside world through the Internet say they don’t know which to fear most, long-term hunger, bombings from the Assad regime or the presence of ISIS. “We are afraid of everything, of the future and the unknown,” said Sameh Homam, an activist living in Yarmouk who uses an alias because he is being hunted by both the Assad regime and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The situation has been dire for the refugee camp for several years. Last year the community was largely cut off from the outside because of militant attacks as well as forces loyal to the Assad regime clash in the largely civilian community. For the civilians who remain in the community survival is a daily struggle. Chris Gunness, estimates that camp residents are surviving on 400 calories a day or less, he said, and conditions soon could become critical. “We simply cannot stand by and watch a massacre unfold,” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said last week, urging concerted international action to save Yarmouk residents. “In the horror that is Syria, the Yarmouk refugee camp is the deepest circle of hell.”

For more information please see:

United Nations News Centre – UN Official on ‘Urgent’ Mission to Besieged Yarmouk Refugee Camp – 11 April 2015

The Washington Post – New Misery in Yarmouk, Symbol of Syria’s suffering – 11 April 2015

Belfast Telegraph – Isis Accused Of Beheading Captives In Palestinian Refugee Camp Yarmouk As Advance Towards Syrian Capital Damascus Continues – 7 April 2015

The Guardian – UN Warns Situation in Damascus Refugee Camp Is ‘Beyond Inhumane’ – 6 April 2015