Iraqi forces on Wednesday seized the UNESCO-listed ancient site of Hatra from the Islamic State (IS) group, the latest archeological jewel to be wrested from the militants’ grip.
Hashed al-Shaabi (“Popular Mobilization”) paramilitary forces fighting the IS around Iraq’s second city, Mosul, said they had “liberated the ancient city of Hatra ... after fierce clashes with the enemy.”
The Hashed forces launched their offensive at dawn on Tuesday, and swiftly retook villages in nearby desert areas and the Hatra archeological site.
Photo: Reuters
Nearby modern Hatra was not yet fully retaken, but the Hashed said its forces had “broken into the town after DAESH defenses collapsed,” using an Arabic acronym for the extremist group.
It said in a statement that it killed 61 IS fighters in the two-day operation, including 19 suicide bombers, and evacuated about 2,500 civilians who fled their homes.
A reporter with the forces said the advance was quick and supported by Iraqi army helicopters.
The Hashed said they retook an area covering 800km2.
Lying 120km southwest of Mosul, the IS’ last urban Iraqi stronghold, Hatra is one of a string of archeological sites recaptured from the extremists over the past few months.
Known as al-Hadhr in Arabic, it was established in the third or second century BC, and became a religious and trading center under the Parthian Empire.
Its imposing fortifications helped it withstand sieges by the forces of two Roman emperors.
Although Hatra finally succumbed to Ardashir I, founder of the Sassanid Dynasty, it was well-preserved over the centuries that followed.
However, after IS militants seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in a lightning 2014 offensive, they vandalized sculptures there as part of a campaign of destruction against archeological sites they had captured.
The extremists see such destruction as a religiously mandated elimination of idols, but they have no qualms about selling smaller artifacts to fund their operations.
The full extent of the damage to Hatra remains unclear.
Besides the huge heritage value of ancient Hatra, the nearby city is of particular strategic significance, because it commands access to roads linking the provinces of Nineveh, Salaheddin and Anbar.
The IS has lost much of the territory it once controlled amid twin offensives in Syria and Iraq, including several ancient sites.
In November last year, less than a month into a vast operation to oust the militants from Mosul, Iraq said it had recaptured Nimrud, a jewel of the Assyrian Empire founded in the 13th century BC.
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