( CNN ) ISIS has again destroyed cultural treasures , this time bulldozing the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq , the nation 's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said . `` ISIS continues to defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity , '' the ministry said in a statement . `` They violated the ancient city of Nimrud and bulldozed its ancient ruins . '' The extent of the damage was n't immediately clear , according to Iraqi state broadcaster Iraqiya TV . `` Our ministry condemns these criminal acts , '' the statement said . `` Letting these lost gangs go without punishment will encourage them to destroy humanity 's civilization , the Mesopotamian civilization , inflicting irreversible priceless damages and losses . '' Photos : Precious monuments lost in conflicts . Nimrud was a city in the Assyrian kingdom , which flourished between 900 B.C . and 612 B.C . The archaeological site is south of Mosul in northern Iraq . The razing of Nimrud comes a week after a video showed ISIS militants using sledgehammers to obliterate stone sculptures and other centuries-old artifacts in the Mosul Museum . That museum held 173 original pieces of antiquity and was being readied for reopening when ISIS invaded Mosul in June , according to Qais Hussain Rashid , the antiquities ministry 's director general of Iraqi museums , who spoke to Iraqiya TV last week . Nimrud and nearby Nineveh are the sites where two Assyrian kings , Sennacherib ( 704-681 B.C . ) and Ashurnasirpal II ( 883-859 B.C . ) , recorded successful military campaigns on the walls of their palaces , according to the World Monuments Fund , a group dedicated to saving the world 's most treasured places . `` Depicted in the reliefs are marauding troops in foreign lands , rendered in a style marked by lively action and attention paid to topographic and ethnographic detail , '' the fund 's website says . `` The palaces of Sennacherib at Nineveh and Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud are vestiges of the political , cultural and artistic height of the Assyrian Empire . The remains of these palaces , the only Assyrian palaces left preserved and decorated with reliefs , are now protected against vandals and function as site museums where visitors can appreciate ancient wall reliefs in their original setting , '' the fund said in a website posting before this week 's ISIS assault on Nimrud . King Ashurnasirpal II made Nimrud the royal seat and the military capital of Assyria , Encyclopedia Britannica 's website says . Buildings at Nimrud `` have yielded thousands of carved ivories , mostly made in the 9th and 8th centuries B.C. , now one of the richest collections of ivory in the world , '' the encyclopedia says . ISIS has destroyed other ancient and deeply meaningful sites in Iraq . Officials have said ISIS has blown up shrines such as the tomb of Jonah . Opinion : Destruction of antiquities proves folly , hypocrisy of ISIS .
Nimrud was city in Assyrian kingdom , which flourished between 900 B.C . and 612 B.C . ISIS has destroyed other ancient sites in Nimrud , home of some of earliest civilizations .