Jihadi insurgents rampaging across Iraq have seized nuclear materials used for scientific research from a university in the country’s north.
Iraq sent an urgent letter to the United Nations appealing for help to “stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad.”
Nearly 88 pounds of uranium compounds were kept at Mosul University, Iraq’s UN ambassador told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the letter obtained on Wednesday.
“Terrorist groups have seized control of nuclear material at the sites that came out of the control of the state,” Mohamed Ali Alhakim wrote, adding that such materials “can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.”
“These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use it separate or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts,” said Alhakim.
A US government source familiar with the matter said the materials were not believed to be enriched uranium and therefore would be difficult to manufacture into a weapon. A UN atomic agency said Thursday it believed the material seized was “low grade” and did not pose a significant security threat.
Meanwhile, Jihadi fighters wielding sledgehammers destroyed centuries-old tombs in Iraq — including one said to belong to the biblical Prophet Jonah, video revealed Wednesday.
The attacks on the tombs by Sunni militants clad in black hoods and clothing took place in Mosul, the northern city that fell to Islamic State forces in the first days of their assault on the Shiite-led Iraqi government.
Militants can be seen swinging sledgehammers at a tomb identified as Jonah’s.
The shrine of the Prophet Seth was also reportedly destroyed by the rebels.
A local official decried the destruction, reminiscent of the Taliban’s bombing of Buddhist shrines in Afghanistan before the US invasion.