Khinnis, a 7th century BC Assyrian archaeological site, has been vandalized with a spray-painted Kurdish flag. (Adam Mirani/Twitter)

ishtartv.com- AINA

A 7th century B.C. Assyrian archaeological site in north Iraq has been vandalized. A picture posted on the twitter account of a Kurdish man shows a Kurdish flag spray-painted on the nearly 3,000 year old relief. The site is known as Khinnis and was once part of an aqueduct built by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in the 7th century. It is located near the city of Dohuk (Assyrian Noohadra).

The aqueduct of Sennacherib was part of a 50 KM (30 mile) canal that brought water to Nineveh and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which have now been shown to have been in Nineveh and not in Babylon.

In 2006 a team from the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project visited the site and reported that it had been used for target practice by Kurdish soldiers.

Khinnis sits above the village of Maltai, a suburb of Dohuk, and includes four panels of rock-cut reliefs depicting Assyrian king Sennacherib (705-681 BC) conversing with the gods. The village of Maltai in the valley below contains a huge tel (archaeological mound) and two ancient Assyrian church ruins, from the 8th and 10th centuries A.D.

Assyrian archaeological sites have suffered severe damage and destruction in the past few years, both in Iraq and Syria. In Iraq ISIS has destroyed the ancient cities of Nimrud and Khorsabad, the walls of Nineveh, the 1400 year-old St. Elijah's Assyrian monastery, the oldest in Iraq, St. George Monastery in Mosul, Mar Behnam near Qaraqosh (Assyrian Baghdede), as well as dozens of churches.