ISIS stole ‘obscene amount of antiquities’ to fund vile recruitment of boys for battle
ISIS looted an "obscene amount of antiquities" in a bid to fund its vile multi-million-pound scheme to recruit teenage boys and men to fight for its extreme beliefs.
“We tried to transfer the relics to Europe to sell them.
"This is especially true for Syrian relics.”
At the time of ISIS's reign of terror in Iraq and Syria, it destroyed Christian churches, Shia mosques, and other historic buildings.
The organisation tried to tunnel down below shrines to find more treasure to sell on the black market to fund its campaigns.
Members of the terror group uncovered an ancient Assyrian palace under the ruins of Mosul.
It is now feared that they looted and sold off the treasures.
The Assyrian artifacts sat for millennia untouched until ISIS bored tunnels below the tomb of the prophet Jonah.
Archaeologists have now spent months exploring the tunnels dug by Isis under the tomb.
The tunnels were found to lead to a military palace founded by King Sennacherib in the 7th century BC.
Peter Miglus, the archaeologist who has led work at the site, said the gold apparently kept in the palace by Sennacherib and his heirs suggested that there used to be a lot more.
It is thought that ISIS had taken the majority of the treasure.
The archaeologist said: "We can presume many very valuable objects must now be on the black market.
Qardash, 53, is awaiting trial.
Since the Syrian conflict broke out, a significant number of Western citizens travelled to the war zone to join ISIS and many of those recruited were teenagers.
ISIS-associated children are now considered as child soldiers by the UN and deemed to have been exploited by the organisation.
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