ISIS Torches Mosul's Ancient Books

There are more ways than one to be barbaric, ISIS has demonstrated in Mosul. The militants, who seized the Iraqi city in June last year, have trashed its libraries and, by one estimate, have burned or otherwise destroyed more than 100,000 volumes, some of them rare and ancient, the Independent reports. According to the Fiscal Times, the city's public library was burned by militants on Sunday night, destroying thousands of books that had been rescued by the city's people after the library was looted following the US invasion in 2003.

Last month, militants entered the University of Mosul's library and made a bonfire out of hundreds of books on science and culture, causing lawmakers in Baghdad to compare the group to the Mongol invaders who ransacked the city in 1258 and threw the entire collections of ancient libraries in the Tigris River, the AP reports. In Syria, meanwhile, an activist group says ISIS has seized several more Assyrian villages and now holds more than 250 Christian hostages, CNN reports. Earlier this week, activist groups said ISIS kidnapped more than 70 Christians, including women and children, during the offensive. (More Mosul stories.)