World Heritage site in danger
World Heritage Site Palmyra falls to Islamic State forces.
The ruins at Palmyra, Syria, are among the world’s renowned historic sites and some fear Islamic State will destroy them.
— Islamic State extremists captured the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra after government defense lines there collapsed Wednesday, a stunning triumph for the group only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq.
It was unclear by nightfall how close to Palmyra’s famed archaeological site the militants had advanced, activists said, adding that Syrian soldiers were seen fleeing the area.
The ruins at Palmyra are one of the world’s most renowned historic sites and there were fears the extremists would destroy them as they have major archaeological sites in Iraq.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site is famous for its 2,000-year-old, towering, Roman-era colonnades and other ruins and priceless artifacts. Before the war, thousands of tourists a year visited the remote desert outpost, a cherished landmark referred to by Syrians as the “Bride of the Desert.”
The fall of the town to the Islamic State group after a week of fighting was an enormous loss for the Syrian government, not only because of its cultural significance but because it opens the way for the extremists to advance to key govern- ment-held areas, including Damascus and the Syrian coast to the south and southwest. Next to it are also important gas and oil fields.
It was not immediately clear how close the militants were to the ruins, which are just southwest of the town.
“I am terrified,” said Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s director-general of antiquities and museums. “This is a PR battle for Daesh, and they will insist on scoring victory against civilization by destroying” the ancient ruins, he said, using the Arabic acronym for the group.
The fall of Palmyra just days after Islamic State fighters seized the strategic Iraqi city of Ramadi showed the extremists’ ability to advance on multiple fronts at opposite ends of a sprawling battlefield that spans the two countries — and erased any sense that recent Islamic State losses in Tikrit, Iraq, and elsewhere had dealt a major blow to the militants.
Abdulkarim said workers were able to save hundreds of statues and masterpieces from Palmyra that were transported to safe houses in Damascus. “But how do you save colonnades that weigh a ton? How do you save temples and cemeteries and, and, and?” he asked.
He appealed to the international community to declare “a red line” around Palmyra and called on the U.S.-led coalition to “at least prevent IS convoys from reaching it.”
Syrian antiquities expert and opposition figure Amr Al-Azm noted the irony of anti-Assad activists having to call on the U.S.-led coalition to support Assad’s forces in the city against the Islamic State militants.
“We are trapped in a sickening paradox where, to save the world heritage site of Palmyra we are forced to call on the international community and the coalition to attack ISIS forces in support of the Syrian regime, which is defending the city,” he wrote in a Facebook posting this week.