Mosul, Iraq (AINA) -- Photos taken on April 20 show Kurdish armed forces conducting military exercises on an Assyrian archaeological site dated to 800 BC. The site is Sennacherib's Aqueduct, located north of Mosul at Jerwan, and is the oldest known aqueduct in the world. It was built of more than two million bricks and was part of a canal which transported water from the mountains in north Iraq to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.

Assyrian archaeological sites are repeatedly defaced and vandalized in north Iraq, despite an outcry of Assyrians to the Kurdish government, who has de facto jurisdiction over most of the Assyrian archaeological sites.

In February of 2016 a Kurdish flag was spray-painted on a 7th century BC Assyrian relief (AINA 2016-02-23). In March of 2018 an Assyrian archaeological site was looted (story).