A Syrian official said on Wednesday that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has destroyed two mausoleums in the historic central town of Palmyra.
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The second shrine was built over 500 years ago for a Sufi scholar known as Nizar Abu Bahaa Eddine.
The before-and-after pictures showed extremists carrying explosives to the ancient mausoleums, which they then proceeded to blow up. As a UNESCO world heritage site, Palmyra is home to many priceless artifacts, monuments, and sculptures from a special time period in history.
The Syrian government has moved hundreds of ancient statues to safe locations to avoid their falling into the hands of Islamic State, Abulkarim told Reuters. Abdulkarim estimates that almost 50 mausoleums have been reported destroyed since the group gained control of the city in May.
In March, IS also targeted ruins at the ancient city of Hatra in Iraq, as well as bulldozing ruins in the Assyrian city of Nimrud.
In February, they also blew up the Mosul Public Library using homemade bombs.
In the meantime, the head of Syria’s Nusra Front militant group mourned the death of al-Qaeda’s deputy leader in an audio message that underlined the organization’s close relationship and appeared to counter recent reports that it might split from the global network. The jihadist group has a reputation for ethnic cleansings of minorities and executions of Western hostages, a number of journalists being among them.
In the photo which had been released on June 22, two ISIS militants can be seen standing on the wreckage of one of the destroyed shrines in Palmyra.
The southern rebels, who include the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and groups that don’t share its jihadist ideology, have long said they aim to expel Syrian government forces from Deraa city itself.
According to the United Nations human rights office, a third of Palmyra’s population of 200,000 has fled.
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Rahman commented that the government depended heavily on gas and oil fields around Palmyra to provide electricity to cities under its control, namely Damascus.
