Ashur was the first capital of an empire that later moved on to grander cities, and in 2014 it became a target specifically because of what it represented rather than for any strategic value.
The original seat, later overshadowed
Before Nineveh and Nimrud became the more famous later capitals of Assyria, Ashur served as the empire's original political and religious capital, home to the temple of the god Ashur himself, and its comparatively early foundation gives it a claim as the root site from which the later, larger Assyrian imperial cities grew.
Deliberately targeted
During its occupation of the region in 2014 and 2015, the Islamic State group deliberately damaged and looted archaeological sites across northern Iraq, including structures at Ashur, as part of a broader campaign to destroy pre-Islamic and non-Islamic heritage it considered idolatrous, an act of ideologically motivated destruction rather than incidental war damage.
As this entry's companion article covers
The unusual fusion of the city's own identity with that of its patron god, both sharing the single name Ashur in a way that collapses the distinction between a place and a deity found at few other ancient Near Eastern sites, is addressed directly in this entry's companion article rather than repeated here.