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UN peacekeepers to protect world heritage sites against raids

In this screen garb from an ISIL video posted on YouTube on April 3, 2015, a militant hammers at a wall in Hatra, a large fortified city recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, southwest of Mosul, Iraq. (AP)

The United Nations is to dispatch peacekeepers in order to protect world cultural heritage sites from militant attacks.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has given the go-ahead to Italy’s proposal to send UN peacekeepers to protect heritage sites around the world from various threats, primarily terrorist attacks and destruction by militants.

"UNESCO has said ‘yes’ to the Cultural Blue Helmets," said Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, adding that 53 countries alongside UN Security Council members supported the suggestion in the light of the destruction of cultural sites, including Syria’s Palmyra, by the Daesh terrorist group.

A sculpture is seen in Palmyra’s museum, Syria, March 14, 2014, when the city was not yet in control of ISIL. (AFP)

In April, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova had also urged the Security Council to add the protection of cultural sites to the list of tasks for UN peacekeeping forces.

International concern over the fate of cultural sites, artifacts and monuments has been heightened by Daesh’s sustained destruction campaign against monuments, especially in Syria and Iraq.

Daesh militants destroying statutes in the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria (File photo)

Militants destroyed and looted the 13th-century Assyrian city of Nimrud, the ancient ruins at Hatra, the ancient Assyrian capital of Khorsabad, and several other ancient sites in northern Iraq. They have released videos showing militants of the Takfiri Daesh terror group smashing priceless artifacts and relics dating back to the 7th century BC in the central museum of Mosul.

After seizing Palmyra in Syria in May, Daesh militants have been consistently destroying the ancient city which is included on the UNESCO World Heritage list, demolishing some of its most prized sites.


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