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The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has blown up a 2,000-year-old temple in the Unesco-listed Syrian city of Palmyra, a rights group and the country’s antiquities chief have said.
Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s antiquities chief, said the group placed a large quantity of explosives in the temple of Baal Shamin on Sunday and blew it up, causing much damage. “Our darkest predictions are unfortunately taking place,” Abdulkarim said.
ISIL “carried out executions in the ancient theatre [of Palmyra], they destroyed in July the famous Lion Statue of Athena . . . and transformed the museum into a prison and a courtroom.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the temple had been destroyed but said activists had told it the incident happened about a month ago.
Another Turkish-based activist, who is originally from Palmyra, said that sources from the city said the temple was blown up on Sunday. — AFP
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