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.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS