Heavy military vehicles were used to damage the site, according to a statement from Iraq’s ministry of tourism and antiquities that didn’t provide further details.
ISIS continues to “deny the will of the world and the feelings of humanity,” the ministry said. It called for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss how to protect cultural heritage in Iraq.
Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC as part of the Assyrian civilization and lies about 30 km south-east of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which was captured by ISIS in June. The destruction of archaeological and religious sites has provoked global condemnation.
The head of UNESCO has condemned the destruction of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq by the ISIS group, saying it amounted to a "war crime".
Tomb of the prophet Jonah in Mosul
Irina Bokova said: "We cannot stay silent. The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage constitutes a war crime, and I call on all political and religious leaders in the region to stand up against this new barbarity."
A tribal source from the nearby city of Mosul told Reuters the ultra-radical Sunni Islamists, who dismiss Iraq's pre-Islamic heritage as idolatrous, had pillaged the 3,000-year-old site on the banks of the Tigris River.
A video emerged last week showing militants attacking ancient statues in the Mosul Museum with sledgehammers. The city’s library containing 8,000 ancient manuscripts is also reported to have been burnt down.
Iraq reopened its national museum in Baghdad last week for the first time in 12 years to defyISIS efforts to “destroy the heritage of mankind and Iraq’s civilization,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.
Ancient Assyrian City.
Ruins of the ancient city remain at the northern Iraqi site, however, which has been excavated by a series of experts since the 19th century. British archaeologist Max Mallowan and his wife, crime writer Agatha Christie, worked at Nimrud in the 1950s.
In July it destroyed the Tomb of the Prophet Jonah in Mosul. It has also attacked Shiite places of worship and last year gave Mosul’s Christians an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death by the sword. It has also targeted the Yazidi minority in the Sinjar mountains west of Mosul.
Tomb of the prophet Jonah in Mosul
Tomb of the prophet Jonah in Mosul