UN Chief Urges World to Stop Destruction of Iraqi Sites

"The secretary-general urgently calls on the international community to swiftly put a stop to such heinous terrorist activity and to counter the illicit traffic in cultural artifacts," Ban said in a statement from his spokesman.

"The deliberate destruction of our common cultural heritage constitutes a war crime."
He stressed that the perpetrators must be held to account, and said he was "outraged" by the destruction, citing the Hatra reports.

The UN chief echoed a call by Iraq's tourism and antiquities minister, Adel Fahad al-Shershab earlier Sunday.

"The sky is not in the hands of the Iraqis, the sky is not in our hands. Therefore, the international community must move with the means it has," Shershab told journalists in Baghdad.

"We request aerial support," Shershab said.

Asked specifically if he wanted coalition strikes to protect archaeological sites, he responded: "What I request from the international community and the international coalition is to carry out air strikes against terrorism wherever it is found."

"The site of Hatra is a site in the desert where it is possible to see any infiltration" from the air, Shershab said of the ancient city, which features a unique blend of eastern and western architecture.

"It was expected that they would destroy it," he said.

But it remains unclear whether large-scale destruction was carried out at Hatra, whose thick walls and large buildings withstood two Roman invasions in the 2nd century AD.

Shershab said his ministry had not been able to officially confirm what had happened because the area is held by "ISIL".

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team