ISIS Blows Up Ancient Temple at Syria’s Palmyra Ruins

Thumbnail Image - "Palmyra, Syria - 2" by James Gordon from Los Angeles, California, USA - Palmyra, Syria. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons.

Militants release images showing destruction of Baalshamim Temple

● Archaeologists Respond To The Murder of Khaled al-Asaad At Ancient Palmyra

Militants from the Islamic State destroyed a temple in the ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria, activists and government officials said on Sunday, continuing a pattern of destruction that they have visited upon historical sites across the territory they control there and in Iraq.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist and monitoring group based in Britain, said Sunday in a statement that Islamic State fighters detonated “a large quantity of explosives” that they had arranged around the Temple of Baalshamin, one of the most grand and well-preserved structures in the sprawling complex of ruins. A government official told reporters that it was heavily damaged by the blast.

The temple stood “dozens of meters” away from a Roman amphitheater where the Islamic State held a mass execution, killing 25 prisoners, in a video released last month, the activist group said. The entire ancient city of Palmyra is a Unesco World Heritage site.

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