Islamic State said it bulldozed a fifth-century Assyrian Christian monastery in the southeastern Syrian town of Qaryatain as the jihadist group pressed on with efforts to wipe out traces of what it considers un-Islamic archaeological and cultural treasures.

Islamic State’s media office distributed photographs on social media sites of what it said was the destruction on Thursday of the Mar Elian monastery. A headline on the photographs reads, “Mar Elian monastery, worshiped without God.”

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