IS beheads Palmyra scholar
DAMASCUS, Syria, Aug 19, (Agencies): Islamic State militants beheaded a leading Syrian antiquities scholar who spent most of his life looking after the ancient ruins of Palmyra, then hung his body from a pole in a main square of the historic town, Syrian activists and the scholar’s relatives said Wednesday.
The killing of 81-year-old Khaled al-Asaad was the latest atrocity perpetrated by the militant group, which has captured a third of both Syria and neighboring Iraq and declared a self-styled “caliphate” on the territory it controls.
Since IS overran Palmyra in May, there have been fears the extremists, who have destroyed famed archaeological sites in Iraq, would demolish the 2,000-yearold Roman-era city at the edge of the town - a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the Mideast’s most spectacular archaeological sites.
The Sunni extremist group, which has imposed a violent interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, believes ancient relics promote idolatry. IS militants claim they are destroying ancient artifacts and archaeological treasures as part of their purge of paganism. The destruction IS has wreaked adds to the wider, extensive damage it has inflicted on ancient sites, including mosques and churches across Syria and Iraq.
According to Syrian state news agency SANA, alAsaad was beheaded on Tuesday in a square outside the town’s museum.
A Palmyra-based Syrian opposition activist who uses the name Khaled al-Homsi and who identified himself also as a nephew of al-Asaad, said Islamic State militants detained the scholar around three weeks ago. On Tuesday, they brought him in a van to a square packed with shoppers.
A militant then read out five accusations against alAsaad, including that he was the “director of idols,” represented Syria “at infidel conferences” and visited Shiite powerhouse Iran.
Then, another militant pulled out a knife, at which point al-Homsi said he left the square, unable to watch. AlAsaad’s body was later hung from a pole on a main street.
The Palmyra archaeological site was al-Assad’s “life,” said al-Homsi, his voice shaking. The activist said he fled the town later on Tuesday.
Even when he grew old and could no longer go to the Roman ruins, al-Asaad “lived close to the site and he could see the archaeological site from his house,” alHomsi said.
Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Damascus, had earlier told SANA that al-Asaad’s body was taken to Palmyra’s archaeological site and hung from one of the Roman columns. But several activists denied that was the case.
Al-Asaad was “one of the most important pioneers in Syrian archaeology in the 20th century,” Abdulkarim said. IS had tried to extract information from him about where some of the town’s treasures had been hidden to save them from the militants, the antiquities chief said.
SANA said al-Asaad had been in charge of Palmyra’s archaeological site for four decades until 2003, when he retired. After retiring, al-Asaad worked as an expert with the Antiquities and Museums Department.
The UN political chief is calling the Syrian government’s airstrikes on the Damascus suburb of Douma that killed some 100 people a war crime.
Jeffrey Feltman told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that Sunday’s attack “would be yet one more war crime for which those responsible must be held accountable.”
The Douma attack was one of the deadliest since Syria’s crisis began in March 2011.
The Security Council has not yet issued a statement on the attack but was expected to discuss it behind closed doors Wednesday.