ISIS Video Shows Destruction of Ancient Artifacts in Mosul, Iraq

This morning, ISIS claims to have destroyed priceless pieces of history.

A video posted yesterday shows people taking power tools and sledgehammers to irreplaceable statutes and artifacts in Iraq.

One piece may date- date back all the way to 700 BC.

Clarissa Ward is in London with why the extremists say it had to be done. Clarissa, good morning.

Good morning. Well, CBS News has not been able to authenticate this video, but it was posted on social media accounts that regularly are used by ISIS, and it shows what could be the loss of artifacts up to 2,700 years old.

Sledgehammers, drills, and bare hands, the weapons used by ISIS in its latest demonstration of destruction. This video appears to show the inside of a museum in the Iraqi city of Mosul. The extremists strip the ancient statues of their protective coverings, then shatter the priceless relics.

A religious spokesman for the group condemned the treasures as sacrilegious.

"These idols and pagans for people in the past centuries were worshiped instead of Allah," he said. "When Allah ordered to destroy and remove them, it was an easy matter. We don't care even if it costs billions of dollars."

Here, a militant at an archeological site is seen destroying an ancient winged bull, a symbol of an Assyrian deity.

The artifact is believed to date back to 700 BC.

This means the irreparable loss of, uh, some of the world's oldest and greatest antiquities, antiquities that are representative of the cradle of civilization.

Jim Cuno heads the J. Paul Getty Trust, an organization devoted to the preservation of art and antiquities.

It roots us in our o- origins. It, it understands that we are part of a much larger picture, a picture that is, that is, is as diverse as the world itself.

Since seizing control of Mosul last June, ISIS has been meticulously purging the city of its diverse history.

Last summer, the militants blew up this ancient tomb, believed to be the burial place of the prophet known as Jonah in the Bible and Yunus in the Quran.

When ISIL destroys dozens of shrines in Mosul, these acts of vandalism are a tragedy for all civilized people, and the civilized world must take a stand.

It's important to note that not all of the artifacts in the video appear to be genuine. Some of them may have been copies, but extremists are also believed to have destroyed thousands of rare manuscripts from Mosul's libraries. Gayle.

Thank you, Clarissa. That's hard to watch, and it's hard to see the glee that was taken in destroying something.

Yeah. Hard to watch 'cause it's irreplaceable.

That's ... Yeah. Yeah. That you cannot get back. Thank you, Clarissa.