World Bulletin / News Desk

According to UNESCO, ISIL already holds around 2.000 world-renowned heritage sites and increasing attacks on those sites has reached "industrial scale".

One of the experts at the Royal United Services Institute in London says, "This deliberate destruction is not only continuing, it is happening on a systematic basis. The looting of archaeological sites and museums, in Iraq particularly, has reached an industrial scale of destruction."

Both Iraq and Syria have over 10.000 heritage sites, experts say they all have a financial upside, so ISIL members use it by selling to certain dealers and to private collectors and to market end buyers. Sale of the historical heritage is one of the best ways to raise revenue for the ISIL. 

Ma'moun Abdul-Karim, director of museums and antiquities, says "ISIL terrorists have destroyed one of the most important unearthed statues in Syria in terms of quality and weight ... it was discovered in 1977 and dates back to the second century A.D."