PARIS (AP) — For the roomful of archaeologists, scholars and Iraqi cultural officials on Friday, each neighborhood conquered in Mosul brought them one step closer to learning the fate of the ancient sites and artifacts seized by the Islamic State group.

NIMRUD, Iraq (AP) — The giant winged bulls that once stood sentry at the nearly 3,000-year-old palace at Nimrud have been hacked to pieces. The fantastical human-headed creatures were believed to guard the king from evil, but now their stone remains are piled in the dirt, victims of the Islamic State group's fervor to erase history.

NIMRUD, Iraq (AP) — The chilly December wind whipped rain across the strewn wreckage of a city that, nearly 3,000 years ago, ruled almost the entire Middle East. Rivulets of water ran through the dirt, washing away chunks of ancient stone.

NIMRUD, Iraq (AP) — Her diligence and face cream cleaned Nimrud's most famous ivory. She captured the archaeological dig in Iraq on celluloid and Kodak film, developing the prints in water painstakingly filtered from the nearby Tigris River.

And every day, after she balanced the books and arranged for the next day's meals, Agatha Christie sat down to write.

NIMRUD, Iraq (AP) — Islamic State extremists have destroyed the ancient site of Nimrud almost beyond recognition, and left its ruins vulnerable to thieves and further damage, according to the United Nations.

NIMRUD, Iraq (AP) — Nearly a month into the fight to retake Mosul, government forces pushed Islamic State militants out of nearby Nimrud, home to some of Iraq's richest archaeological treasures. And when soldiers finally surveyed the extremists' destruction of the ancient sites, one said that those who carried it out "don't have a place in humanity."

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi troops entered a town south of Mosul on Sunday where Islamic State militants destroyed artefacts at a nearby ancient Assyrian archaeological site, while special forces fended off suicide bombers during a cautious advance into the northern city.

The push into Nimrud was the most significant gain in several days for government forces, potentially opening up the area for teams to assess the damage done to the famed ruins just outside the town.

ROME (AP) — Three archaeological treasures damaged or destroyed by fighting in Syria and Iraq have been reproduced for a UNESCO-sponsored exhibit at the Colosseum.

The exhibit, which opened Thursday, features life-size replicas of the Temple of Bel at Palmyra, the human-headed bull at Nimrud and the Royal Archives at Ebla.