IS militants behead Syrian antiquities scholar in Palmyra
DAMASCUS, Syria — The aging antiquities scholar dedicated his life to exploring and overseeing Syria’s ancient ruins of Palmyra, one of the Middle East’s most spectacular archaeological sites. He even named his daughter after Zenobia, the queen that ruled from the city some 1,700 years ago.
Islamic State militants who now control the city beheaded him in a main square and hung his body on a pole, witnesses and relatives said Wednesday.
The killing of 81-year-old Khaled al-Assad stunned Syria’s archaeologists and underscored fears that the extremist group will destroy or loot the 2,000-year-old Roman-era city on the edge of the modern town of the same name, as they have other major archaeological sites in Syria and Iraq.
The Sunni extremists, who have imposed a violent interpretation of Islamic law across the territory they control in the two countries, believe ancient relics promote idolatry.
IS militants claim they are destroying ancient artifacts and archaeological treasures as part of their purge of paganism — though they are also believed to sell off looted antiquities as a significant income earner.
Al-Asaad had been the government director of the Palmyra site for decades, and both his years of study and his iron administrative grip over the ruins earned him the nickname “Mr. Palmyra” among Syrian antiquities experts. Even after IS militants captured the town and the neighboring ruins in May, he remained his home town.
The Palmyra archaeological site was al-Assad’s “life,” an opposition activist from the town who uses the name Khaled al-Homsi and who identified himself also as a nephew of al-Asaad, told The Associated Press. 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,” al-Homsi said.
The militants detained the scholar around three weeks ago, al-Homsi said, speaking to the AP on condition his real name not be used.
On Tuesday, they brought him in a van to a main square packed with shoppers. A militant read out five accusations against al-Asaad, 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. Al-Asaad’s body was later hung from a pole on a main street.
Syria’s state news agency SANA confirmed the beheading.
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.
Palmyra was the capital of an ancient Arab client state of the Roman Empire. In the 3rd century, its Queen Zenobia led a revolt against Rome that briefly succeeded in holding much of the Levant until it was crushed.
The remains of the cities, including temples and dramatic colonnades, are a UNESCO world heritage site.