IS systematically destroying heritage sites — UNESCO chief

Bokova said she is anxious about most of the ancient sites in Syria, with some of the damage, including to the Crusader castle of Crac de Chevaliers, caused by fighting.

Militants are seen bulldozing the historically-important site in the heartbreaking pictures. Thousands of priceless antiques from across war-ravaged Syria have been gathered in the capital, and are being stored safely.

ISIS have continued their sickening campaign of cultural vandalism by demolishing an ancient Christian monastery.

Syrian government’s warplanes were still pounding the area with air strikes two weeks after Islamic State captured the town.

The group, which captured the Qaryatain area in early August, posted photos on social media on Friday that showed bulldozers destroying the Saint Elian Monastery. In July, IS launched a press release saying that six busts from Palmyra had been confiscated from a smuggler. Assyrian roots lie in ancient Mesopotamia, including modern day Iraq. The organization, which controls large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, has already destroyed a series of churches and shrines, which it considers heretics. The late 1980s discovery of treasures in Nimrud’s royal tombs was one of the 20th century’s most significant archaeological finds.

The militant group overran the ancient city of Palmyra in May, and have since destroyed statues and other artefacts there.

Palmyra has not been subjected to widespread pillaging, but the militants placed mines throughout the UNESCO site in June. The move was described by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon as a “war crime”.

A fifth-century Christian monastery in Qaryatain, Syria, was destroyed by the Islamic State, an Assyrian news agency reported Friday. On Tuesday, famed Palmyra expert Khaled al-Asaad was publicly beheaded by Islamic State militants, his bloodied body hung on a pole in a main square, according to witnesses and relatives. Days later, militants broke into the University of Mosul’s library. “It is just hundreds of holes all around them”.