March of Destruction: ISIL Smashes Priceless 3,000-Year-Old Statues in Iraq

The radical group published a new video showing militants wielding sledgehammers and power drills to destroy ancient relics at a museum in Mosul and an archaeological site in the Iraqi city of Nineveh, the Nergal Gate.

The unidentified militants in the footage claim the priceless art, dating as far back as the 7th century B.C., promotes idolatry, adding that Prophet Muhammad ordered them to crush unique artifacts.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova called the destruction of Iraq's cultural objects "a deliberate attack against [the country's] millennial history and culture" that only encourages sectarian violence and hatred. Bokova called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

The footage comes days after reports emerged that Sunni radicals set tens of thousands of books and manuscripts on fire in the militant-held areas, including Mosul.

Experts fear that a collection of century-old Iraqi newspapers, as well as books and maps dating back to the Ottoman Empire were destroyed after ISIL militants bombed a public library in Iraq's second largest city earlier this week.

The Islamic State turned Mosul into its stronghold in Iraq after seizing the city in a June 2014 blitz offensive. The group notorious for it brutality has been engaged in what some believe amounts to cultural terrorism, destroying or smuggling priceless art from Iraq and Syria.