Isis militants have reportedly ransacked Mosul library, burning over a hundred thousand rare manuscripts and documents spanning centuries of human learning.
It has been reported that approximately 8,000 books were destroyed by the extremist Islamic militants.
However, AL RAI’s chief international correspondent Elijah J. Magnier told The Independent that a Mosul library official believes as many as 112, 709 manuscripts and books, some of which were registered on a UNESCO rarities list, are among those lost.
According to Mosul Public Library’s director Ghanim al-Ta’an the militants, under the banner of the extremist group known as the Islamic State, then demolished the building using explosive devices.
“People tried to prevent the terrorist group elements from burning the library, but failed,” a anonymous local source toldIraqiNews.com.
Other reports indicated that individual Isis members later broke into the library, while university students watched in horror, and constructed a huge pyre of scientific and cultural texts.
Among the documents believed lost are a collection of Iraqi newspapers from the beginning of the 20 century, maps, books and collections from the Ottoman period.
A Mosul resident said that a mood of sorrow and anger had overtaken Mosul. "I cry today over our situation," activist and a blogger Rayan al-Hadidi told The Fiscal Times. Today the library's official website was down.
A University of Mosul history professor, speaking on condition of anonymity to Associated Press, said the extremists began destroying the library – established in 1921 and symbolic of the birth of modern Iraq – earlier this month.
He claimed Isis members had inflicted particularly heavy damage to the Sunni Muslim library, the library of the 265-year-old Latin Church and Monastery of the Dominican Fathers and the Mosul Museum Library – which contained manuscripts dating back to 5000BC.
Further reports indicated the militants may have not destroyed all the books, with some Mosul residents telling local news outlets that they had seen trucks with Syrian licence plates loaded with documents, before being driven off in the middle of the night.
A local report, cited by the Associated Press, claims that residents saw approximately 2,000 books – including children’s tales, poetry, philosophy, sports, health, culture and science – loaded onto six pick-up trucks.
In 2003, during the second US invasion, Mosul library was destroyed. Many of the precious volumes disappeared, but the efforts of locals – who saved many precious manuscripts by hiding them in their homes – and the money of wealthy families, who bought back the stolen books, saved the library.
Roughly a million people live in Mosul, in northern Iraq, and it is the biggest city currently held by the Islamic extremists who took it in June last year.
Earlier this week US Central Command claimed an Iraqi and Kurdish force of approximately 20,000 was being prepared to retake the city in May. The Iraqi government has criticised the decision to announce their intentions, claiming US commanders have revealed their hand to Isis.
By Rose Troup Buchanan, Heather Saul
