Islamisterne har denne gang kastet sig over den oldparsiske fæstningsby, Hatra, som modstod romernes angreb, men nu hjemsøges af de religiøse fanatikere, der destruerer “afguds-billederne” fra antkkens dage.
PARIS, 7. March 2015 (UNESCO): Following the brutal destructions of many invaluable cultural items at the Mosul Museum and the bulldozing of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, official sources Friday reported the destruction of the World Heritage property of Hatra in northern Iraq.
Hatra was a large fortified city under the influence of the Parthian Empire, the capital of the first Arab kingdom, and bearing the roots of Islamic Arab cities.
Hatra withstood invasions by the Romans in A.D. 116 and 198 thanks to its high, thick walls reinforced by towers.
The remains of the city, especially the temples where Hellenistic and Roman architecture blend with Eastern decorative features, attest to the greatness of its civilization.
“The destruction of Hatra marks a turning point in the appalling strategy of cultural cleansing underway in Iraq,” said the Director-General of UNESCO, Mrs. Irina Bokova, and Dr Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO).
“This is a direct attack against the history of Islamic Arab cities, and it confirms the role of destruction of heritage in the propaganda of extremists groups”, they noted, adding:
“With this latest act of barbarism against Hatra, IS (Islamisk Stat) shows the contempt in which it holds the history and heritage of Arab people, which had been rightly recognized as a World Heritage site”.
Mere om Hatra på http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/277