Online:
Visits:
Stories:
Profile image
Story Views

Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

Islamic State Destroys Ancient Temple in Syria

Sunday, August 23, 2015 22:33
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

  The Temple of Baalshamin in Palmyra, Syria, prior to its destruction by Islamic State militants. (Bernard Gagnon / Wikimedia Commons)(CC-BY-SA)

Islamic State made a symbolic and destructive statement by blowing up the ancient Temple of Baalshamin, one of the foremost structures among the ruins of Palmyra in Syria, which The New York Times and other outlets reported was destroyed on Sunday:

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.

[...] The destruction of the temple is just the latest in a string of horrors that the Islamic State has inflicted upon Palmyra since seizing the city in May. Last week, the group beheaded Khalid al-Asaad, 83, who had served as the chief of the city’s antiquities department for more than 50 years. After they killed him, Islamic State militants strung his headless body as a warning to others. Last month, the group demolished half a dozen ancient statues, smashing them with sledge hammers, and in June they blew up two historic tombs.

—Posted by Kasia Anderson

Related Entries



Source: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/islamic_state_destroys_ancient_temple_in_syria_20150823/

Report abuse

Comments

Your Comments
Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

Top Stories
Recent Stories

Register

Newsletter

Email this story
Email this story

If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.