SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — The Department of Social Sciences and the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at the American University of Iraq Sulaimani hosted Sunday the university’s first Annual Iraqi Cultural Heritage Symposium.

Titled "Iraq Cultural Heritage in Crisis: Strategies for the Future,” the forum debated the role of local, national and international authorities in collaborating to save Iraqi heritage placed especially at risk since ISIS began destroying a number of ancient sites in Mosul and other parts of Iraq.

Foreign experts were joined by Kurdish, Iraqi and UN officials at the event.

ISIS is systematically destroying the cultural heritage of Iraq. Earlier this month, an Islamic State video showed the destruction of parts of the ancient Iraqi Assyrian city of Nimrud, a site dating back to the 13th century B.C.

Iraq and Germany have recently urged all countries to support a UN resolution aimed at saving Iraq's ancient cultural heritage from further destruction by ISIS.

Rudaw