Islamic State photos show militants reducing Palmyra's rare artefacts to dust

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has reportedly released photos showing its militants destroying what are understood to be looted artefacts from the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. The pictures showed six statues being hit with sledgehammers as a crowd looked on, reported the BBC.

The group said that the statues had been seized from a smuggler, who was pictured being lashed as a punishment. On Thursday, Syria's antiquities director Maamoun Abdelkarim said that the group had destroyed a 2,000-year-old statue of a lion from the Palmyra ruins.

The news comes just days after the UNESCO signed a deal to monitor archaeological sites in areas held by the terror group via satellite in the wake of the devastation unleashed by ISIS on historical sites in Iraq and Syria.