Footage of fresh Palmyra wrecking
MOSCOW // Russia’s military yesterday released drone footage showing that ISIL has carried out more destruction at Palmyra since recapturing the Unesco world heritage site in December.
The video dated February 5 shows part of the Roman amphitheatre reduced to rubble and the tetrapylon, a 16-column structure that marked one end of the ancient city’s colonnade, wiped out.
“The pictures clearly show that the terrorists blew up the proscenium – the central part of the ancient Roman theatre – and the columns of the tetrapylon,” the Russian defence ministry said.
Before being forced out of Palmyra in a Russian-backed offensive in March, ISIL razed world- famous temples and tower tombs at the site.
ISIL fighters recaptured Palmyra about nine months later as the Syrian government and its allies focused on recapturing the eastern half of Aleppo city from rebels.
Artillery and air strikes killed hundreds of civilians in rebel-held Aleppo, and Human Rights Watch said yesterday that the government had also carried out at least eight chemical attacks in the weeks before the rebels were defeated.
The rights group said witness accounts, photos and video footage indicated that government helicopters dropped chlorine bombs from November 17 to December 13. The Syrian government and the opposition are now preparing for a new round of UN-brokered peace talks from February 23 in Geneva, aimed at ending the war.