Plundering religious and cultural artefacts is now part of the strategy of Islamic State. The aim is to boost their funds and demoralise the local population Last July, jihadists from Islamic State (IS) blew up the hilltop Tomb of the prophet Jonah (known locally as Younis or Yunan and revered by Muslims, Eastern Christians and Jews), in Mosul, northern Iraq. They cleared the fourteenth-century church-cum-mosque of worshippers and laced the site with explosives. The slender minaret tumbled in a cloud of dust and locals were left picking over rubble in disbelief. Last week, there were unconfirmed reports that IS had seized the contents of the city’s cultural museum and was threatening to blow up the walls of the ancient Assyrian capital, Nineveh, part of present-day Mosul, if the Ir