Mosul: Shi‘ite Militias Exhume Christian Graveyard in Search for Treasures
The Iraqi forces and pro-Iranian Hashd al-Shaabi militias are looting the ancient objects belonging to Christians in the province of Ninevah, a Sunni official revealed on Wednesday.
Atheel al-Nujaifi, who previously served as the Governor of Nineveh province from April 2009 until May 2015, said in an online statement on his Twitter account that the forces have exhumed several graves from the Tahira Cemetery in the region of Maidaniya, in Old Mosul.
The Iraqi troops and Shi‘ite militias have dug up the graves under the pretext of clearing the area from the Islamic State (IS) war remnants, while they are, indeed, attempting to steal Christians‘ ancient objects.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Arf, an archeologist in the Kurdistan Region‘s district of Sheikhan, Duhok province, pointed out that the Hashd al-Shaabi militias have destroyed a number of archeological sites and ancient antiques in the area, noting that the Peshmerga forces had kept the region safe until they were forced by the central government to withdraw from the territories in October, 2017.
Arf said that the Shi‘ite armed forces have also destroyed the sites of Khursabat and Grebaibukhti which were over 3000 years old.
