Image copyright @teamsmediawar Image caption The Popular Mobilisation said this photograph showed the devastation at Hatra

An Iraqi paramilitary force says it has recaptured the ancient city of Hatra, which is believed to have been destroyed by Islamic State militants.

The Popular Mobilisation announced that its fighters had "liberated" the Unesco World Heritage-listed site "after fierce clashes with the enemy".

The full extent of the damage to Hatra was not immediately clear from a grainy photograph published by the force.

IS has bulldozed, blown up and looted pre-Islamic sites it deems idolatrous.

Unesco has said the deliberate destruction of Iraq's cultural heritage constitutes a war crime.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Hatra was one of the best-preserved of Iraq's archaeological sites

Shia-led Popular Mobilisation militiamen launched the offensive on Hatra at dawn on Tuesday.

By Wednesday afternoon, they had retaken the archaeological site and had advanced to the edge of the adjacent modern town of Hatra, according to an AFP news agency journalist.

Hatra, located 290 km (180 miles) north-west of Baghdad and 110km south-west of Mosul, was one of the best-preserved of Iraq's archaeological sites before it was seized by IS in 2014.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Popular Mobilisation fighters launched an assault on Hatra on Tuesday morning

Possibly founded in the 3rd or 2nd Century BC, it was a religious and trading centre of the Parthian Empire and capital of the first Arab Kingdom.

The city's numerous temples, where Hellenistic and Roman architecture were blended with Eastern decorative features, led to it becoming known as the "House of God".

Its high, thick walls, which were built in a circle and fortified by towers, meanwhile helped it withstand invasions by the Romans in AD116 and 198. It eventually fell to the Persian Sasanian dynasty in AD241.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Hatra was a religious and trading centre of the Parthian Empire

More recently, the site was used in the opening scene of the 1973 horror film, The Exorcist.

In March 2015, Iraqi officials said they had received reports from locals that IS had destroyed Hatra.

The following month, IS itself released a video showing militants using picks, sledgehammers and assault rifles to destroy Hatra's walls and statues.

In November, a month after launching a major operation to drive IS out of Mosul, Iraqi forces recaptured the ancient city of Nimrud. Much of the site was reduced to rubble, with shattered statues and a ziggurat reduced to a fraction of its size.</s>BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi pro-government forces announced on Wednesday (April 26) that they have recaptured the UNESCO-listed ancient city of Hatra from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.

"Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) forces liberated the ancient city of Hatra... after fierce clashes with the enemy," said the Shiite-dominated paramilitary group.

Hatra, which lies in the desert southwest of Iraq's second city Mosul, includes a UNESCO world heritage site.

ISIS destroyed priceless objects in Hatra and at other archaeological sites after seizing swathes of Iraq and Syria in a lightning 2014 offensive.

The full extent of the harm to Hatra remains unclear.

Hatra, known as Al-Hadhr in Arabic, was established in the 3rd or 2nd century BC and became a religious and trading centre under the Parthian empire.

Its imposing fortifications helped it withstand sieges by the forces of two Roman emperors.

Hatra finally succumbed to Ardashir I, founder of the Sassanid dynasty but the city remained well-preserved over the centuries that followed.

The Hashed al-Shaabi launched a three-pronged offensive Tuesday to retake the nearby modern town of Hatra, the statement said.

Iraqi pro-government forces backed by a US-led international coalition have been fighting since October to oust ISIS from Mosul, its last major urban bastion in Iraq.

The Hashed al-Shaabi is an umbrella group for militias that mobilised to fight ISIS and were later integrated into Iraq's official defence apparatus.</s>HATRA: Iraqi forces seized the UNESCO-listed ancient site of Hatra from Daesh Wednesday, the latest archaeological jewel to be wrested from the terrorists’ grip.

 Hashed Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary forces fighting Daesh around Iraq’s second city Mosul said they had “liberated the ancient city of Hatra... after fierce clashes with the enemy.”

 The Hashed forces launched their offensive at dawn on Tuesday and swiftly retook villages in nearby desert areas and the Hatra archaeological site.

 Nearby modern Hatra was not yet fully retaken but the Hashed said its forces had “broken into the town after Daesh defenses collapsed.”

 It said in a statement that it killed 61 Daesh fighters in the two-day-old operation, including 19 suicide bombers, and evacuated around 2,500 civilians who fled their homes.

 An AFP reporter with the forces said the advance was quick and supported by army helicopters. The Hashed Al-Shaabi said they retook an area covering 800 sq. km.

 Lying 120 km southwest of Mosul, the militants’ last urban Iraqi stronghold, Hatra is one of a string of archaeological sites recaptured from Daesh in recent months.</s>An Iraqi-modified T-72M tank belonging to the pro-government Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary forces advances on April 26, 2017 towards the ancient city of Hatra, southwest of Mosul, during an offensive to retake the area from the Islamic State group (AFP Photo/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE)

Iraqi forces on Thursday retook the town of Hatra, southwest of Mosul, on the third day of an operation that saw them wrest back a nearby UNESCO-listed ancient city, a statement said.

Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary forces said they had flushed the Islamic State group out of Hatra, which lies 120 kilometres (80 miles) from Mosul.

The top army commander coordinating the six-month-old offensive to retake the Mosul area from the jihadists, Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir Yarallah, said the “Hashed al-Shaabi forces fully liberated Hatra town in record time.”

He was quoted in a statement from the Joint Operations Command as saying that the Iraqi flag was raised above key buildings in the town following a battle during which “heavy losses” were inflicted on the jihadists.

The Hashed forces, which are dominated by Iran-backed militia groups, had retaken the nearby archaeological site of Hatra on Wednesday.

The ancient city is one of the heritage jewels of Iraq and was damaged by IS after they took over large parts of the country three years ago, although the extent of the destruction remains unclear.</s>HATRA: Iraqi pro-government forces said on Wednesday (Apr 26) they had seized the UNESCO-listed ancient site of Hatra from the Islamic State group, the latest archaeological jewel to be wrested from the militants' grip.

Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary forces fighting IS around Iraq's second city Mosul said they had "liberated the ancient city of Hatra ... after fierce clashes with the enemy".

The Hashed forces launched their offensive at dawn on Tuesday and swiftly retook villages in nearby desert areas and the Hatra archaeological site. They had advanced to the edge of the adjacent town of Hatra itself.

An AFP reporter with the forces said the advance was quick, supported by army helicopters and met by limited resistance from the militants.

Lying 120 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of Mosul, the militants' last urban Iraqi stronghold, Hatra is one of a string of archaeological sites recaptured from IS in recent months.

Known as Al-Hadhr in Arabic, it was established in the 3rd or 2nd century BC and became a religious and trading centre under the Parthian empire. Its imposing fortifications helped it withstand sieges by the forces of two Roman emperors.

Although Hatra finally succumbed to Ardashir I, founder of the Sassanid dynasty, it was well-preserved over the centuries that followed.

But after IS militants seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in a lightning 2014 offensive, they vandalised sculptures there as part of a campaign of destruction against archaeological sites they had captured.

The militants see such destruction as a religiously mandated elimination of idols - but they have no qualms about selling smaller artefacts to fund their operations.

The full extent of the damage to Hatra remains unclear.

IS has lost much of the territory it once controlled amid twin offensives in Syria and Iraq, including several ancient sites.



In November, less than a month into a vast operation to oust the militants from Mosul, Iraq said it had recaptured Nimrud, a jewel of the Assyrian empire founded in the 13th century BC.



Journalists who visited immediately afterwards found shattered statues, wrecked ancient palaces and bulldozed structures in one of the region's most important archaeological sites.



IS had smashed stone carvings and detonated explosives at the site.



Last month Syrian regime forces recaptured the famed desert city of Palmyra from the militants, who had destroyed priceless objects there too.



Also in March, Iraqi security forces recaptured Mosul's museum, where IS militants infamously filmed themselves smashing priceless artefacts.



The five-minute video from 2015 shows militants at the museum in Mosul knocking statues off their plinths and smashing them to pieces.



In another scene, militants used a jackhammer to deface an imposing granite Assyrian winged bull at the Nergal Gate in Mosul.



The destruction at the museum and the archaeological sites drew widespread condemnation internationally and inside Iraq.



Iraqi pro-government forces backed by a US-led coalition have been fighting since October to oust IS from Mosul.



The Hashed al-Shaabi, an umbrella group for militias that mobilised to fight IS, have focused their efforts on a front southwest of Mosul, aiming to seize the town of Tal Afar as well as desert areas stretching to the border with Syria.



Iraqi forces advanced in west Mosul this week, closing in on the Old City as the militants executed civilians in a desperate bid to hold on to the last major Iraqi bastion of their crumbling "caliphate".</s>BAGHDAD, April 26 (Reuters) - Iraqi paramilitary units dislodged Islamic State from Hatra on Wednesday, driving the militants from an ancient city they damaged during their three-year rule, according to an Iraqi military spokesman.

The extent of the damage was not disclosed, but Islamic State released a video in 2015 showing their destruction of monuments in Hatra.

They were driven out by Popular Mobilisation, a coalition of mostly Iranian-trained groups of Shi'ite volunteers formed in 2014 after Islamic State, a hardline Sunni group, overran a third of Iraq.

It operates with the approval of Iraq's Shi'ite-led government, in coordination with the regular armed forces.

Hatra, a city that flourished in the first century AD, lies south of Mosul, where Islamic State has been fighting against a U.S.-backed offensive since October.</s>Iraqi militiamen, who drove Islamic State fighters from the ancient city of Hatra this week, found that IS had destroyed relics dating back more than 2,000 years.

"The sculptures and engraved images are destroyed, but the walls and towers of the kingdom of Hatra remain standing," said Marwa Rashid, a spokeswoman for Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, a Shi'ite militia that is clearing IS from villages north of Mosul in northern Iraq.

"There are many holes and scratches on the walls of the kingdom due to IS bullets," she said.

PMF units took full control over the historic city, about 110 kilometers southwest of Mosul, after a three-week offensive. Its recapture was a part of a regional military operation known as Muhammad Prophet of God.

Known historically as the ancient city where East meets West, Hatra is a UNESCO-listed World Heritage site and considered one of the archeological jewels of Iraq and capital of the first Arab kingdom. The large fortified site was founded in the 2nd or 3rd century B.C. and once was a thriving city under the influence of the Parthian Empire.

Its high and thick walls, reinforced by towers, helped it withstand invasions by the Romans in the years 116 and 198. Its temples offer a unique blend of Hellenistic and Roman architecture with Eastern decorative features.

The site stood undisturbed for decades until April 2015, when IS invaded it. Citing Hatra's "un-Islamic" nature, IS began destroying relics on the site.

In a video released by IS after its occupation, IS fighters are seen smashing sculptures with sledgehammers and destroying images and artifacts on ancient walls with assault rifles.

UNESCO, the cultural heritage arm of the United Nations, called the destruction a war crime and has urged political and religious leaders in the region to take note.

"The destruction and looting of the remains of the capital of the first Arab kingdom is an immense loss for the Iraqi people and the world. Its liberation marks a positive turning point and paves the way for ensuring its protection and conservation," UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said Thursday.

PMF units said IS had planted land mines around the eastern gates of the site to deter their advances. Engineering teams will clear the site of any explosives before allowing Iraqi archeologists to assess the damage.

"The kingdom of Hatra will be standing high, God willing," Rashid said.

Since mid-2014, IS has destroyed dozens of historic sites in Iraq and Syria, including mosques, churches and Shi'ite religious halls known as hussainiyas. The group says shrines and statues are "false idols" that must be destroyed.

Sermed Alwan, president of the Iraqi Mesopotamian Heritage Association, said the extent of the damage nationwide to ancient sites had yet to be determined. But the initial accounting of the damage in Hatra is heartbreaking, he said.

"The loss of Hatra relics is huge for Iraq and for the international community," he said.</s>Iraqi forces seized the UNESCO-listed ancient site of Hatra from the Islamic State group Wednesday, the latest archaeological jewel to be wrested from the jihadists’ grip.

Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary forces fighting IS around Iraq’s second city Mosul said they had “liberated the ancient city of Hatra … after fierce clashes with the enemy.

The Hashed forces launched their offensive at dawn on Tuesday and swiftly retook villages in nearby desert areas and the Hatra archaeological site.

Nearby modern Hatra was not yet fully retaken but the Hashed said its forces had “broken into the town after Daesh (IS) defenses collapsed.

It said in a statement that it killed 61 IS fighters in the two-day-old operation, including 19 suicide bombers, and evacuated around 2,500 civilians who fled their homes.

An AFP reporter with the forces said the advance was quick and supported by army helicopters. The Hashed al-Shaabi said they retook an area covering 800 sq. km (300 sq. miles).

Lying 120 km (80 miles) southwest of Mosul, the jihadis’ last urban Iraqi stronghold, Hatra is one of a string of archaeological sites recaptured from IS in recent months.

Known as Al-Hadhr in Arabic, it was established in the third or second century BC and became a religious and trading center under the Parthian empire.

Its imposing fortifications helped it withstand sieges by the forces of two Roman emperors.

Although Hatra finally succumbed to Ardashir I, founder of the Sassanid dynasty, it was well-preserved over the centuries that followed.

But after IS jihadis seized swaths of Iraq and Syria in a lightning 2014 offensive, they vandalized sculptures there as part of a campaign of destruction against archaeological sites they had captured.

The jihadis see such destruction as a religiously mandated elimination of idols — but they have no qualms about selling smaller artefacts to fund their operations.

The full extent of the damage to Hatra remains unclear.

Besides the huge heritage value of ancient Hatra, the nearby city is of particular strategic significance because it commands access to roads linking the provinces of Nineveh, Salaheddin and Anbar.

IS has lost much of the territory it once controlled amid twin offensives in Syria and Iraq, including several ancient sites.

In November, less than a month into a vast operation to oust the jihadis from Mosul, Iraq said it had recaptured Nimrud, a jewel of the Assyrian empire founded in the 13th century BC.

Journalists who visited immediately afterward found shattered statues, wrecked ancient palaces and bulldozed structures in one of the region’s most important archaeological sites.

IS had smashed stone carvings and detonated explosives at the site.

Last month, Syrian regime forces recaptured the famed desert city of Palmyra from the jihadis, who had destroyed priceless objects there too.

Also in March, Iraqi security forces recaptured Mosul’s museum, where IS militants infamously filmed themselves smashing priceless artifacts.

The five-minute video from 2015 shows militants at the museum in Mosul knocking statues off their plinths and smashing them to pieces.

In another scene, jihadis used a jackhammer to deface an imposing granite Assyrian winged bull at the Nergal Gate in Mosul.

The destruction at the museum and the archaeological sites drew widespread condemnation internationally and inside Iraq.

Iraqi pro-government forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition have been fighting since October to oust IS from Mosul.

The Hashed al-Shaabi, an umbrella group for militias that mobilized to fight IS, has focused its efforts on a front southwest of Mosul, aiming to seize the town of Tal Afar as well as desert areas stretching to the border with Syria.

Iraqi forces advanced in west Mosul this week, closing in on the Old City as the jihadis executed civilians in a desperate bid to hold on to the last major Iraqi bastion of their crumbling “caliphate.”</s>Iraqi forces on Thursday retook the town of Hatra, southwest of Mosul, on the third day of an operation that saw them wrest back a nearby UNESCO-listed ancient city, a statement said.

Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary forces said they had flushed the Islamic State group out of Hatra, which lies 120 kilometres (80 miles) from Mosul.

The top army commander coordinating the six-month-old offensive to retake the Mosul area from the jihadists, Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir Yarallah, said the "Hashed al-Shaabi forces fully liberated Hatra town in record time."

He was quoted in a statement from the Joint Operations Command as saying that the Iraqi flag was raised above key buildings in the town following a battle during which "heavy losses" were inflicted on the jihadists.

The Hashed forces, which are dominated by Iran-backed militia groups, had retaken the nearby archaeological site of Hatra on Wednesday.

The ancient city is one of the heritage jewels of Iraq and was damaged by IS after they took over large parts of the country three years ago, although the extent of the destruction remains unclear.</s>Iraqi forces say they have captured Hatra, a 2,000-year-old historical site near the northern city of Mosul where a battle with Islamic State has been raging for months.

The media arm of the state-sanctioned force made up mainly of Shiite militias broadcast images of the site, showing what appeared to be the ancient ruins in the distance as militia vehicles drove through open desert.

It was unclear from the video if the forces had actually secured the ancient site.

Karim al-Nouri, a spokesman for the paramilitary forces, told state TV they captured the Unesco world heritage site and were around two miles from a nearby town with the same name, without providing further details.

Iraqi forces often claim to have driven IS from areas that are still far from secure, or that quickly fall back into the militants’ hands.

Hatra is believed to have been built in the second or third century BC by the Seleucid Empire.

IS militants destroyed it along with other major historical sites in and around Mosul after seizing much of northern Iraq in the summer of 2014.

The extremist group believes antiquities promote idolatry, though it is also believed to sell artefacts on the black market to fund its operations.

In April 2015, IS released a video showing the extremists smashing sledgehammers into Hatra’s walls and firing assault rifles at priceless statues.

At one point, the video showed a militant on a ladder using a sledgehammer to bang repeatedly on the back of a carved face until it crashed to the ground and broke into pieces.

Hatra, located about 68 miles south west of Mosul, flourished during the first and second centuries as a religious and trading centre.

It was a large, fortified city during the Parthian Empire and capital of the first Arab kingdom.

The site is said to have withstood invasions by the Romans in AD 116 and AD 198 thanks to its high, thick walls.
The pro-government Popular Mobilization Forces militia takes control of the mostly destroyed ancient city of Hatra in Iraq's Nineveh Governorate, following clashes with ISIL, who seized the ruins in 2014.