- Oct 31, 2012
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Isis set to destroy 2000 year old city
The ancient city that has stood for 2,000 years but now faces destruction at the hands of ISIS: Fears for Palmyra, the archaeological jewel of the Middle East which Islamists want to reduce to rubble as modern barbarians gather at its gates
Islamic State terrorists advanced to the gates of ancient Palmyra on Thursday, raising fears the Syrian world heritage site could face destruction of the kind the jihadists have already wreaked in Iraq.
As it overran nearby villages, IS executed 26 civilians - 10 of whom were beheaded - for 'collaborating with the regime,' the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Irina Bokova, head of the UN's cultural body UNESCO, called on Syrian troops and extremists to spare Palmyra, saying it 'represents an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people, and the world.'
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UNESCO describes Syria's Palmyra as a heritage site of 'outstanding universal value'
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A picture taking in March 2015 shows damage caused by shelling in the ancient Syrian oasis city of Palmyra
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Palmyra lies around 130 miles northeast of Damascus
'Palmyra must be saved,' Bokova said at a two-day conference in Cairo on protecting the region's archeological sites.
Syria's head of antiquities made an appeal for international action earlier Thursday, saying IS was less than two kilometres (barely a mile) from the remains of one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
The world 'must mobilise before, not after, the destruction of the artefacts' at Palmyra, Mamoun Abdulkarim said in a telephone call.
'IS has not entered the city yet, and we hope these barbarians will never enter,' he said. 'But if IS enters Palmyra, it will be destroyed and it will be an international catastrophe.'
Syrian officials said that the Syrian army is responding and has dispatched reinforcements to Palmyra.
The governor of central Homs province, where Palmyra is located, said the situation was 'under control'.
'The army has sent reinforcements and it is bombing the (IS) positions from the air,' said Talal Barazi.
UNESCO describes Palmyra as a heritage site of 'outstanding universal value'.
The ancient city stood on a caravan route at the crossroads of several civilisations and its 1st and 2nd century temples and colonnaded streets mark a unique blend of Graeco-Roman and Persian influences.
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Syria's head of antiquities made an appeal for international action earlier Thursday, saying IS was barely a mile from the remains of one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world
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A Syrian policeman stands on the sanctury of Baal in Palmyra, 130 miles northeast of Damascus
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Antiquities officials are trying to ensure the safety of artefacts found in archaeological digs over the years which are housed in an adjacent museum
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The ancient city stood on a caravan route at the crossroads of several civilisations
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Syria's head of antiquities, Mamoun Abdulkarim, said that IS 'will just destroy [Palmyra] from the outside'
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Abdulkarim said Syria's antiquities officials would try to ensure the safety of artefacts found in Palmyra's archaeological digs
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Palmyra is a unique blend of Graeco-Roman and Persian influences
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the city was 'under threat' as fierce fighting and shelling continued on its eastern edges amid a regime counter-offensive.
The jihadist advance on the well-preserved remains came as an international conference was under way in Cairo to address destruction already wreaked by IS on the ancient sites of Nimrud and Hatra in Iraq.
Foreign affairs and antiquities officials from 11 Arab countries gathered in Egypt to condemn the jihadists' demolition of Iraq's heritage with sledgehammers, bulldozers and high explosives.
Abdulkarim said Syria's antiquities officials would try to ensure the safety of artefacts found in Palmyra's archaeological digs over the years and now housed in an adjacent museum.
'We can protect the statues and artefacts, but we cannot protect the architecture, the temples,' he said.
'IS will just destroy it from the outside.'
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An Isis thug destroys a priceless decorative wall in Hatra
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An Islamic State militant smashes relics in Nimrud, Iraq, an Iraqi Assyrian city that dates back to the 13th century
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A grab from an Islamic State video showing the Nimrud being blown up
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An Islamic State militant destroying relics in the 2nd-century BC city of Hatra
ISIS barbarically obliterate the ancient ruins of Nimrud in Iraq
Abdulkarim said he had no doubt that if Palmyra fell to the jihadists, it would suffer a similar fate to ancient Nimrud, which they blew up earlier this year.
'If IS enters Palmyra, it will spell its destruction... It will be a repetition of the barbarism and savagery which we saw in Nimrud, Hatra and Mosul.'
It would not be the first time that government troops have lost control of Palmyra. Rebels held the site from February to September 2013 before the regime recaptured it.
One of the ancient city's masterpieces, the Temple of Baal, suffered some damage during the accompanying artillery exchanges.
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ISIS extremists used power drills and sledge hammers to destroy artefacts in a museum in Mosul
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Mindless: Isis fanatics used a digger to level a shrine in Libya earlier this year
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Sickening: A Isis terrorist pictured destroying a Christian grave with a sledgehammer in Mosul
ISIS use guns and sledgehammers to destroy ancient site
But those rebels did not share the fanatical devotion of IS to demolishing all of the region's pre-Islamic heritage.
There was ferocious fighting as the jihadists overran the town of Al-Sukhnah on Wednesday in their drive across the desert towards Palmyra.
Syria's official news agency reported that military aircraft had destroyed IS vehicles near Al-Sukhnah and that army units 'killed IS terrorists' in the area.
Provincial governor Talal Barazi said that 1,800 families who had fled the advancing jihadists were being sheltered in reception centres in the nearby modern town of Tadmur.
Both sides suffered heavy losses in the battle for Al-Sukhnah, including senior commanders, the Observatory said.
The army lost 70 men, including six officers. IS lost 55 men, including two commanders, one of them the leader of the offensive.
Jihadist websites named him as Abu Malik Anas al-Nashwan, who appeared in an IS video showing the beheadings of 28 Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians in Libya earlier this year.
The ancient city that has stood for 2,000 years but now faces destruction at the hands of ISIS: Fears for Palmyra, the archaeological jewel of the Middle East which Islamists want to reduce to rubble as modern barbarians gather at its gates
- Fears grow for city that's 'an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people'
- Syria's head of antiquities made an appeal for international action
- UNESCO describes Palmyra as a site of 'outstanding universal value'
- Syria's army dispatched reinforcements to Palmyra to push back IS
Islamic State terrorists advanced to the gates of ancient Palmyra on Thursday, raising fears the Syrian world heritage site could face destruction of the kind the jihadists have already wreaked in Iraq.
As it overran nearby villages, IS executed 26 civilians - 10 of whom were beheaded - for 'collaborating with the regime,' the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Irina Bokova, head of the UN's cultural body UNESCO, called on Syrian troops and extremists to spare Palmyra, saying it 'represents an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people, and the world.'
+17
UNESCO describes Syria's Palmyra as a heritage site of 'outstanding universal value'
+17
A picture taking in March 2015 shows damage caused by shelling in the ancient Syrian oasis city of Palmyra
+17
Palmyra lies around 130 miles northeast of Damascus
'Palmyra must be saved,' Bokova said at a two-day conference in Cairo on protecting the region's archeological sites.
Syria's head of antiquities made an appeal for international action earlier Thursday, saying IS was less than two kilometres (barely a mile) from the remains of one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
The world 'must mobilise before, not after, the destruction of the artefacts' at Palmyra, Mamoun Abdulkarim said in a telephone call.
'IS has not entered the city yet, and we hope these barbarians will never enter,' he said. 'But if IS enters Palmyra, it will be destroyed and it will be an international catastrophe.'
Syrian officials said that the Syrian army is responding and has dispatched reinforcements to Palmyra.
The governor of central Homs province, where Palmyra is located, said the situation was 'under control'.
'The army has sent reinforcements and it is bombing the (IS) positions from the air,' said Talal Barazi.
UNESCO describes Palmyra as a heritage site of 'outstanding universal value'.
The ancient city stood on a caravan route at the crossroads of several civilisations and its 1st and 2nd century temples and colonnaded streets mark a unique blend of Graeco-Roman and Persian influences.
+17
Syria's head of antiquities made an appeal for international action earlier Thursday, saying IS was barely a mile from the remains of one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world
+17
A Syrian policeman stands on the sanctury of Baal in Palmyra, 130 miles northeast of Damascus
+17
Antiquities officials are trying to ensure the safety of artefacts found in archaeological digs over the years which are housed in an adjacent museum
+17
The ancient city stood on a caravan route at the crossroads of several civilisations
+17
Syria's head of antiquities, Mamoun Abdulkarim, said that IS 'will just destroy [Palmyra] from the outside'
+17
Abdulkarim said Syria's antiquities officials would try to ensure the safety of artefacts found in Palmyra's archaeological digs
+17
Palmyra is a unique blend of Graeco-Roman and Persian influences
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the city was 'under threat' as fierce fighting and shelling continued on its eastern edges amid a regime counter-offensive.
The jihadist advance on the well-preserved remains came as an international conference was under way in Cairo to address destruction already wreaked by IS on the ancient sites of Nimrud and Hatra in Iraq.
Foreign affairs and antiquities officials from 11 Arab countries gathered in Egypt to condemn the jihadists' demolition of Iraq's heritage with sledgehammers, bulldozers and high explosives.
Abdulkarim said Syria's antiquities officials would try to ensure the safety of artefacts found in Palmyra's archaeological digs over the years and now housed in an adjacent museum.
'We can protect the statues and artefacts, but we cannot protect the architecture, the temples,' he said.
'IS will just destroy it from the outside.'
+17
An Isis thug destroys a priceless decorative wall in Hatra
+17
An Islamic State militant smashes relics in Nimrud, Iraq, an Iraqi Assyrian city that dates back to the 13th century
+17
A grab from an Islamic State video showing the Nimrud being blown up
+17
An Islamic State militant destroying relics in the 2nd-century BC city of Hatra
ISIS barbarically obliterate the ancient ruins of Nimrud in Iraq
Abdulkarim said he had no doubt that if Palmyra fell to the jihadists, it would suffer a similar fate to ancient Nimrud, which they blew up earlier this year.
'If IS enters Palmyra, it will spell its destruction... It will be a repetition of the barbarism and savagery which we saw in Nimrud, Hatra and Mosul.'
It would not be the first time that government troops have lost control of Palmyra. Rebels held the site from February to September 2013 before the regime recaptured it.
One of the ancient city's masterpieces, the Temple of Baal, suffered some damage during the accompanying artillery exchanges.
+17
ISIS extremists used power drills and sledge hammers to destroy artefacts in a museum in Mosul
+17
Mindless: Isis fanatics used a digger to level a shrine in Libya earlier this year
+17
Sickening: A Isis terrorist pictured destroying a Christian grave with a sledgehammer in Mosul
ISIS use guns and sledgehammers to destroy ancient site
But those rebels did not share the fanatical devotion of IS to demolishing all of the region's pre-Islamic heritage.
There was ferocious fighting as the jihadists overran the town of Al-Sukhnah on Wednesday in their drive across the desert towards Palmyra.
Syria's official news agency reported that military aircraft had destroyed IS vehicles near Al-Sukhnah and that army units 'killed IS terrorists' in the area.
Provincial governor Talal Barazi said that 1,800 families who had fled the advancing jihadists were being sheltered in reception centres in the nearby modern town of Tadmur.
Both sides suffered heavy losses in the battle for Al-Sukhnah, including senior commanders, the Observatory said.
The army lost 70 men, including six officers. IS lost 55 men, including two commanders, one of them the leader of the offensive.
Jihadist websites named him as Abu Malik Anas al-Nashwan, who appeared in an IS video showing the beheadings of 28 Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians in Libya earlier this year.
