AlAsa’ad, a university professor and the former General Manager for antiquities and museums in Palmyra, was beheaded on Tuesday in the city’s public square.
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It goes on to say that the antiquities expert had represented Syria in worldwide conferences branded as “kuffar” (a derogatory term used to refer to non-Muslims), and that he’d had various connections and communications with Alawite and government figures. On Tuesday, they brought him in a van to a square packed with shoppers.
In July, ISIS militants executed 25 Syrian soldiers in the ruins of Palmyra’s Roman amphitheater. It has also highlighted Isis’s habit of looting and selling antiquities to fund its activities – as well as destroying them.
Yesterday, the so-called Islamic State’s bloody occupation of the ancient site continued with the beheading of 82-year-old Khaled al-Asaad, a renowned archeologist who had served as the keeper of Palmyra for more than 50 years.
The ruins of Palmyra, a vital hub along the Silk Road in antiquity, housed artifacts including the Temple of Bel and several Roman tombs.
“Dozens of people” are said to have witnessed him die to protect the artifacts.
Since IS overran Palmyra, there have been fears the extremists, who have destroyed famed archaeological sites in Iraq, would demolish its Roman-era city.
Known as “Mr. Palmyra” among Syrian antiquities experts for his authoritative knowledge and decades administering the site, al-Asaad refused to leave even after IS militants captured the town and neighboring ruins in May.
The nickname was in recognition of Assad’s dedication to the Palmyra archaeological site in Syria that he directed for 40 years, and the city where he was born 81 years ago.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Mr Asaad was beheaded in the square outside the museum in Palmyra where he had been in charge since the 1960s.
Hariri, who is married to al-Asaad’s daughter, Zenobia, said his father-in-law is survived by six sons and five daughters.
Photos purporting to show Assaad’s body tied to a post in Palmyra were circulated online by IS supporters.
Residents told dpa that civilians and members of Kurdish forces were among the dead in the blast, which was heard up to 5 kilometres away.
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“It was hard for him to see his city under the control of these people, so he insisted on staying there”, Abdalrazzaq Moaz, co-director of cultural heritage initiatives at the American Schools of Oriental Research told the BBC.
