Destruction of cultural heritage by the Islamic State

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Since 2014, the Islamic State (IS) has destroyed cultural heritage on an unprecedented scale, primarily in Iraq and Syria, but also in Libya. These attacks and demolitions targeted a variety of ancient and medieval artifacts, museums, libraries, and places of worship, among other sites of importance to human history. Between June 2014 and February 2015, the Islamic State's Salafi jihadists plundered and destroyed at least 28 historic religious buildings in Mosul alone. Many of the valuables that were looted during these demolitions were used to bolster the economy of the IS. Along with antique Mesopotamian sites of significance, the IS inflicted particularly cataclysmic levels of damage upon Iraqi Christian heritage. It also destroyed Islamic sites that it declared to be in contradiction of that which is permissible in its ideology.

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