Fears for Palmyra's ancient treasures as Isis retakes northern part of Syrian city

[umbertino]

Syria’s antiquities chief calls for international action to save city of Unseco site as activists say Islamic State has regained ground after being repelled

 

 

Wednesday 20 May 2015 15.15 BST

 

 

 

Islamic State fighters have seized control of the northern sector of the Syrian city of Palmyra, a monitor and activists have said, triggering renewed fears about the ancient site’s historic treasures.

 

“The situation is very bad. If only five members of Isis go into the ancient buildings, they’ll destroy everything,” Syria’s antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdulkarim, said, calling for international action to save the city.

 

Palmyra’s Unesco world heritage site, including ancient temples and colonnaded streets, is located in the city’s south-west. Hundreds of statues and ancient artefacts from its museum have already been transferred out of the city, Abdulkarim said, but many others - including massive tombs – could not be moved.

 

It was the second time Isis has overrun northern Palmyra in the past five days. Its fighters seized the same neighbourhoods on Saturday but held them for less than 24 hours.

 

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Isis had seized roughly “a third of Palmyra” on Wednesday. After heavy fighting on the northern edges of the city, Isis fighters entered the northern quarter “without their vehicles”. They seized a state security building and fanned out across northern districts as Assad regime forces fled, the monitoring group’s head said.

 

“People are very afraid of what will happen, because Isis has the capability to get to the heart of Palmyra,” said Khaled al-Homsi, an activist in the city. He said terrified residents were staying at home and that government forces were on the defensive.

 

Asked if Isis would be able to reach the city’s ancient ruins, a Syrian military source said anything was possible in urban warfare. He acknowledged the jihadis had infiltrated northern neighbourhoods and said they were engaged in “street fighting” with regime forces.

 

Mohammad Hassan Homsi, another activist originally from Palmyra, said Syrian soldiers fled after Isis took the state security building. “They headed to the military intelligence headquarters near the ruins,” he said.

 

Homsi said jihadi fighters from the flashpoint border town of Kobani, where US-led air strikes helped Kurdish fighters defeat Isis in January, were among those fighting in Palmyra.

 

Isis began its offensive on Palmyra on 13 May, seizing a nearby town and two gas fields, and leaving more than 350 people dead.

 

The city is strategically located at the crossroads of key highways leading west to Damascus and Homs, and east to Iraq.

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/20/isis-captures-a-third-of-ancient-syrian-city-of-palmyra-reports-islamic-state