BEIRUT – Islamic State militants have partially destroyed a Roman amphitheater that they were using for their macabre executions in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, state officials said Friday.
The extremist group seized control of the area last month for the second time, reversing one of Russia’s largest military victories in Syria, and raising fears that the jihadists would destroy what remained of one of the most famous Roman sites in the Middle East.
A major stop for the cross-desert caravans, this 3rd century Roman city was once ruled over by the legendary Queen Zenobia and one of the best preserved cities of the classical era.
During their previous control of the town, the Islamic State destroyed two of its temples and the huge triumphal arch honoring Roman Emperor Septimius Severus.
“This is not just the destruction of ancient ruins, this is the destruction of civilization,” Maamon Abdulkarim, Syria’s antiquities minister, told The Washington Post.
Satellite imagery shows the Islamic State militants appear to have destroyed large parts of the amphitheater’s facade and structures on the stage.
They also demolished the Tetrapylon, a towering structure marking the intersection of the cities two main boulevards.
Aerial footage posted online by Palmyra Monitor, an activist network with contacts inside the area, appeared to show the structure shattered into a pile of stones.
Like many of the country’s ancient treasures, Palmyra’s ruins have been looted by government forces, damaged in fighting and airstrikes and shattered with dynamite during its occupation by the Islamic State – a group that has delighted in destroying archeological sites in Syria and Iraq, labeling them as pagan.
Russian airstrikes facilitated the Syrian government’s recapture of Palmyra in March, marking Moscow’s most concrete victory at the time against the Islamic State group in the since it intervened to prop up President Bashar al-Assad’s then-crumbling fortunes.
But when Islamic State forces moved to retake the area in December, they met with little resistance.
Khaled al-Homsi, an activist from the area, said Thursday that the extremist group had executed twelve prisoners, some on the ampitheater stage. Most of the dead were said to be Syrian soldiers or government-allied militiamen. Four were teachers or government officials.
Once one of Syria’s most popular tourist destinations, Palmyra was believed to be largely deserted by the time it fell to the Islamic State for a second time. Homsi said the area was mostly home to government forces and militiamen, with less than 100 civilians remaining.
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