UN chief calls IS' destruction of Iraq's Nimrud a war crime

UNITED NATIONS/ UNITED STATES: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday strongly condemned the Islamic State group's bulldozing of the ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud, describing it as a war crime.

Ban urged political and religious leaders in the region to speak out in condemnation of "these unacceptable attacks."

"The deliberate destruction of our common cultural heritage constitutes a war crime and represents an attack on humanity as a whole," Ban said in a statement.

After rampaging through Mosul's museum with sledgehammers and torching its library last month, IS "bulldozed" the nearby ruins of Nimrud on Thursday, the Iraqi tourism and antiquities ministry said.

Ban was due to meet the director of the UN cultural agency UNESCO, Irina Bokova, later in the day to discuss the destruction of Nimrud.