The most famed temple in Syria’s Palmyra has been blown up, the UN said on Monday, showing satellite images of the damage as the Islamic State group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, presses a campaign to tear down the treasured heritage site.
A powerful blast in the ancient city had raised fears that Islamic militants had escalated their push to rid Syria of what they view as un-Islamic artifacts after they destroyed the smaller Baal Shamin temple last week.
“We can confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity,” the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) said, providing satellite images from before and after the explosion on Sunday.
The 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel was the centerpiece of Palmyra’s famed ruins and one of the most important relics of the heritage site, which has been described by the UN’s cultural arm UNESCO as of “outstanding universal value.”
Islamic State group fighters seized the city from Syrian regime forces in May and have since attacked the city’s ruins and historic sites, which they consider idolatrous, and last month beheaded the 82-year-old former antiquities chief in Palmyra.
The Sunni Muslim group has also been accused of destroying heritage sites to loot items to sell on the black market and to gain publicity for their campaign to bring vast swathes of Iraq and Syria under their own extreme interpretation of Islam.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said late on Sunday that Islamic State group fighters had set off boxes and barrels of explosives inside the 2,000-year-old temple, destroying the inner part of the building.
“This was the most important temple for tourists and for the people of Palmyra. They used to hold festivals there,” said Mohammad Hassan al-Homsi, an activist from Palmyra.
UNITAR said its satellite program put to rest any doubts that the Temple of Bel — built between 32 BC and the 2nd century, and which later served as both a church and a mosque — had been destroyed in the blast.
The Islamic State group has also executed hundreds of people in Palmyra and its surroundings, including several dozen soldiers in the city’s ancient amphitheater.
More than 240,000 people have died in Syria’s conflict since it began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
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