Ancient Syrian city of Palmyra under threat as IS fighters advance
Isis fighters were battling Syrian troops less than two kilometres from the remains of one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world
Government troops in Syria are struggling to suppress Isis militants advancing on Palmyra, a Unesco world heritage site containing 2,000 year-old ruins.
Islamic State group fighters have advanced to the gates of ancient Palmyra on Thursday, raising fears the Syrian world heritage site could face destruction of the kind the jihadis have already wreaked in Iraq.
Isis fighters were battling Syrian troops less than two kilometres from the remains of one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world, Syria’s director of antiquities said.
Palmyra, “an oasis in the Syrian desert”, lies north-east of Damascus and is known for its Roman-era architecture, described by Unesco as a marriage of Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences. It was once a tourist hotspot before civil war broke out in Syria and contains a famous colonnaded main street and the temple of Baal.
The jihadists reached the oasis town after a lightning advance across the desert in which they overran government forces in fierce fighting that cost the lives of 110 combatants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Unesco describes Palmyra as a heritage site of “outstanding universal value”.
The jihadi advance on the well-preserved remains came as an international conference was under way in Cairo to address the destruction already wreaked by Isis on the ancient sites of Nimrud and Hatra in Iraq.
The Director-General of Unesco, Irina Bokova, called on all parties to do everything they can to protect Palmyra from being destroyed. "The site has already suffered four years of conflict, it suffered from looting and represents an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people and for the world,” Bokova said.
