Iraqi soldiers have captured Nimrud, the site of an ancient Assyrian city overrun by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) two years ago, a military statement said on Sunday.‘Troops from the Ninth Armoured Division liberated Nimrud town completely and raised the Iraqi flag above its buildings,’ the statement said.The town of Nimrud lies 1 km west of the ruins of the 3,000-year-old city.The soldiers also captured the village of Numaniya, on the edge of the city that was once the capital of an Assyrian empire stretching from Egypt to parts of modern-day Iran and Turkey, the army said.The Iraqi government says Nimrud was bulldozed last year as part of ISIL’s campaign to destroy symbols it considered to be idolatrous.
Video footage released by ISIL, purportedly from Nimrud, also showed its fighters destroying relics with electric drills and explosives.Nimrud lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris river, about 30 km south of Mosul where Iraqi soldiers and special forces are battling ISIL for control of the largest city under the group’s control in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.Source: Aljazeera