ISIS Destroys Priceless Artifacts in 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.