Special to WorldTribune.com

ISIL “assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles,” according to an official Facebook post by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Nimrud is 30 km southeast of Mosul which has become ISIL base of operations in Iraq. It was build in the 13th century BC on the Tigris River.

“I’m sorry to say everybody was expecting this. Their plan is to destroy Iraqi heritage, one site at a time,” said Abdulamir Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist from New York’s Stony Brook University.

“Hatra of course will be next,” he said, referring to a city in Nineveh province that is more than 2,000 years old.

ISIL leaders teach that art objects that were objects of worship must be destroyed.

  ISIL’s assault on antiquities called first in a series, WorldTribune.com