IS militants 'destroy Palmyra statues'

The Islamic State group has published photographs of militants destroying what it says are artefacts looted from the ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria, BBC News reported.

Six statues are shown being hit with sledgehammers while a crowd looks on.

The jihadist group said the statues had been seized from a smuggler, who was pictured being whipped as a punishment.

Meanwhile, the UN's cultural agency has said antiquities plundered by IS from sites in Iraq and Syria have ended up with collectors in the UK.

Syria's antiquities director Maamoun Abdelkarim said on Thursday the IS group had destroyed a 2,000-year-old statue of a lion from the Palmyra ruins.

Mr Abdelkarim called the destruction of the three-metre (10ft) statue, known as the Lion of al-Lat, "the most serious crime [IS has] committed against Palmyra's heritage."