ISIS continues its desecration of the Middle East

The Tripoli arm of the group posted pictures of a convoy of pick-up trucks, followed by an image of a man attacking a shrine with a sledgehammer.

Further pictures show the building being pushed over by a digger, the shrine having been reduced to a pile of rubble.

News of the destruction was tweeted by Conflict News, which posted the images with the message ‘#ISIS in Tripoli province posts photos of its "police" demolishing Sufi shrines’.

The fanatics have caused outrage by destroying several ancient relics and sites in Iraq recently, as well as books and rare manuscripts.

On Monday Iraq’s government began investigating reports that the ancient archaeological site of Khorsabad in northern Iraq had been attacked by the so-called Islamic State.

Adel Shirshab, the country's tourism and antiquities minister, said there are concerns the militants had removed artefacts and blown up the site, located nine miles north-east of Mosul.

Saeed Mamuzini, a Kurdish official from Mosul, said 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.

UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon has called the destruction a 'war crime'.

A statement by his spokesman on Sunday night said Mr Ban was 'outraged by the continuing destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq' by ISIS.

Khorsabad was constructed as a new capital of Assyria by King Sargon II shortly after he came to power in 721BC and abandoned after his death in 705BC.

(dailymail.co.uk)