Iraqi forces fight IS in Mosul as bomb blasts hit Tikrit wedding

After gaining control of the city’s eastern side in January, troops are now pushing into the more densely-populated west. “The remains of the Esarhaddon palace are found underneath the Nabi Yunis shrine”, Salih added.

As Iraqi forces fight Islamic State militants deeper into western Mosul, they face increasingly stiff resistance, with the jihadists using mortar and sniper fire to try to hold off a US -backed offensive to drive them out of their last major stronghold in the country. ISIS has been adamant in wrecking Iraq’s cultural sites and churches because they consider it as a form of polytheism. The shrine is said to be the burial place of the Prophet Jonah (or Yunus), a key figure in Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

A 100,000-strong force of Iraqi military units, and Shia and Kurdish fighters, backed by a US-led coalition, has been fighting to retake Mosul from Daesh since October.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called on the population to stay in their homes, at the same time urging humanitarian organizations and government agencies to step up efforts to help the tens of thousands who fled.

Salim Khalaf, a ministry official, said at the forum that more than 700 archaeological items had been exhumed from the tunnels of Nabi Yunus and sold on the black market. “We believe they took numerous artifacts, such as pottery and smaller pieces, away to sell”. The statues and sculptures, purportedly in a museum in Mosul, date as far back as 7th century BCE. They said that among the things they saw there were remains of what could have been an ancient Assyrian bull statue and pieces of cuneiform tablets. Teams of global experts are now bidding for the opportunity to help the local archaeologists secure and document the site. In July 2015 the US handed Iraq a hoard of antiquities it said it had seized from Islamic State in Syria.

British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, president of the council for March, said the 15-member body believed that Iraq’s investigation into possible chemical weapons attacks was ongoing. A video published online shows fighters destroying artifacts with sledgehammers, drills and their bare hands.

Russian-backed government troops have swept eastwards from Syria’s second city Aleppo and seized a swathe of countryside from the jihadists.