In a move that erased invaluable items of history and culture from the face of the earth, the Islamic State group has destroyed mummies and statues in the ancient city of Palmyra, and also blown up a shrine on a mountain.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR), in a post on its official Facebook page, said of the statues: "Some of them were smashed and others were beaten with hammers [sic]." Indeed, the video, it claimed it had received, showed the statues, of immense historical and cultural importance, being taken off tables and smashed on the ground. They were also pummelled with hammers to a condition beyond restoration.

As for the mummies, the video showed them laid down on the road and a heavy vehicle running over them, powdering them in the process. The video also shows the Islamic State group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), blowing up a shrine on a mountain.

The timeline of these destructions is not known. However, the SOHR post quotes a field leader of Isis, which is also known as Daesh locally, as saying: "We will break these status in everywhere, wherever we will see them we will break them, the Tawheed is only for ALLAH is in this land. [sic]"

The city of Palmyra in the Homs region of Syria has been documented to have been around since the second millennium BC, and sheds light on ancient civilisation in the region.

Here is the video: