Daesh destroys ancient shrines in Syria’s Palmyra city

Amman: Daesh terrorists have blown up two ancient shrines in Palmyra, a 2,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site in central Syria, Daesh said on Tuesday.

The report was the first of any damage being done by the terrorists to buildings in Palmyra since they seized control of the city, also known as Tadmur, in May. Syrian forces have bombed the city, and the terrorists camped within it, since then.

Before-and-after pictures showed several terrorists carrying explosives and the shrines, which are not among the city’s monumental Roman-era buildings, reduced to rubble.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said this week that the terrorists had planted mines in Palmyra but that it was not clear whether it was preparing to destroy the site or wanted to deter government forces from advancing towards it.

Syrian antiquities chief Abdul Maamoun Abdul Karim said, “In all the areas where they spread when they see tombs they destroy them as see them as sacrilegious and a return to paganism.” Hundreds of statues had been moved from the city to safe locations, before the terrorists, who control large swathes of Iraq and Syria, took over, he told Reuters.