Pictures on the internet show Isil bulldozing parts of the 1,500-year-old Catholic monastery of Mar Elian near the Syrian town of Qaryatain, southeast of Homs.
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The militants did not appear to have completely destroyed the building – which dates back to the 5th century – with explosives, as they have done with shrines and other religious buildings in the past.
The group has also transferred several dozen Christians, captured during its offensive, to a location near its stronghold in northeastern Syria, the monitor said.
A resident from Qaryatain who recently fled to Damascus called on the United Nations to protect Christians as well as ancient Christian sites in Syria.
Some of the world’s most precious cultural treasures, including ancient sites in the cradle of civilization, are in areas controlled by the group and at the mercy of extremists bent on wiping out all non-Islamic culture and history.
The terrorists reportedly overran al-Qaryatayn following violent clashes with Syrian soldiers in early August.
In May, two members of Mar Elian’s community had been abducted: Father Jacques Mourad and Deacon Boutros Hanna. According to Edward, Mourad had actively welcomed and sheltered both Muslim and Christian Syrians fleeing the fighting elsewhere in Homs province. He remains one of six clergy in Syria who have been kidnapped by rebel groups, their fates unknown.
It is not yet known what has happened to the remaining 70 people captured after the seizure of Qaryatain.
The razing of the monastery closely follows the beheading by Islamic State earlier this week of Syria’s most prominent antiquities scholar, Khalid Asaad, in the ancient city of Palmyra, a Unesco World Heritage site.
Islamic State militants took 230 people captive after taking Qaryatain.
The extremist group also sells priceless antiquities plundered from the archaeological sites it destroys, earning millions of dollars used to fund their self-proclaimed caliphate.
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Palmyra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. “We walked through the colonnades, more than a kilometre of attractive colonnades”.
