EXPERTS DETONATE PALMYRA MINES

PALMYRA , SYRIA • Explosions rocked the ancient town of Palmyra on Friday and on the horizon, black smoke wafted behind its majestic Roman ruins, as Syrian army experts carefully detonated hundreds of mines they say were planted by Islamic State extremists before they fled the town.

While some parts of the site, including the Romanera grand colonnades and amphitheatre appeared relatively untouched, the damage was very much visible elsewhere.

The remarkable Arch of Triumph, built under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus between AD 193 and AD 211, has been reduced to a pile of stones, blown up by IS extremists who filmed the destruction for the world to see.

The Temple of Baalshamin and parts of the Temple of Bel, one of the best-preserved Roman-era sites, are also destroyed.

Apart from the Roman ruins themselves, heavy damage could be seen on parts of the walls of Palmyra’s towering Mamluk-era citadel, built during the Islamic conquest in the 13th century. On top of the scarred citadel, a Syrian flag flies in the wind.

Palmyra is located about 248 kilometres east of Damascus, the Syrian capital. Government troops, backed by allied militiamen and Russian airstrikes retook the town on Sunday from ISIL militants who had controlled Palmyra and its environs for 10 months.

Ancient Palmyra is a UNESCO heritage site — an archeological gem that attracted tens of thousands of tourists every year. It was completely deserted Friday, except for Syrian army soldiers working on dismantling explosives and visiting journalists. The town — about a kilometre away from the ruins — is completely deserted, its remaining residents had fled as the Syrian army’s offensive against ISIL began a month ago.

Traces of the fighting could be seen all around. Burned cars parked on the side of the road, electricity cables strewn about on the streets, and scattered empty water tanks apparently used as barricades.

At the entrance to the Roman amphitheatre, where ISIL filmed children shooting captive Syrian soldiers in the head, black graffiti is sprayed on a stone wall.

“Lasting and Expanding,” it read in Arabic, a logo of the Islamic State group. “The Islamic State” is scribbled on another nearby wall.

A Syrian officer told reporters that more than 3,000 mines have so far been dismantled. “They boobytrapped everything, trees, doors, animals,” he said. Russian sappers have arrived in Syria to help the Syrian army clear mines in and around the town.