The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, meeting in Bonn, noted the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
's destruction of the ancient city of Hatra in Iraq and expressed "deep concern" about the Syrian archaeological gem of Palmyra, which the group captured in May. Both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
"Intentional attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes and historic monuments may amount to war crimes," the committee said in a resolution it adopted.
In April,
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she had received allegations of widespread atrocities in Syria and Iraq by IS, as well as the "wanton destruction of cultural property," but said she wasn't opening an investigation as neither country is a member of the court and the imported muscle suspected of involvement are not high-ranking enough to prosecute.
In its resolution, UNESCO said it was "deeply shocked" by repeated attacks by IS and other groups "aimed at destroying cultural diversity through deliberate targeting of individuals and communities on the basis of cultural, ethnic or religious background, as well as places of worship, memory and learning."
It added further that it was alarmed by an increasing number of threats to cultural heritage through looting and illegal excavations "which seriously undermine irreplaceable cultural treasures, among them UNESCO World Heritage sites in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Syria and Yemen.
UNESCO also cautioned that natural world heritage sites in Niger, Congo the Central African Republic and Ivory Coast are threatened by problems "likely to continue long after the end of hostilities."