IS video shows ruined artefacts
The destructions are part of a campaign by IS extremists who have destroyed a number of shrines, including Muslim holy sites, in order to eliminate what they view as heresy.
They are also believed to have sold ancient artefacts on the black market in order to finance their bloody campaign across the region.
The five-minute video shows a group of bearded men inside the Mosul Museum using hammers and drills to destroy several large statues, which are then shown chipped and in pieces.
The video then shows a black-clad man at a nearby archaeological site inside Mosul, drilling through and destroying a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity that dates back to the 7th-century BC.
The video was posted on social media accounts affiliated with IS and though it could not be independently verified it appeared authentic.
Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the surrounding Nineveh province fell to the militants during their blitz last June.
