Fears after ’ISIL’ Group Mines Syria’s Palmyra

Local Editor

"ISIL" militants have mined the spectacular ancient ruins in Syria's Palmyra, an antiquities official and monitor said Sunday, prompting fears for the UNESCO World Heritage site.

The reports came one month after the extremist group overran the central Syrian city.

Syria's antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim and the so-called "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" monitor said that the group had laid mines and explosives in Palmyra's Greco-Roman ruins.

The Observatory said the explosives were laid on Saturday.

"But it is not known if the purpose is to blow up the ruins or to prevent regime forces from advancing into the town," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

"The regime forces are to the west outside the city, and in recent days they have brought in reinforcements suggesting they may be planning an operation to retake Palmyra," he added.

A political source s that a leading commander had been dispatched to the region to organize an offensive to recapture and secure Palmyra and several key gas fields nearby.

Abdulkarim also said Sunday he had received reports from Palmyra residents that the ruins had been mined.

"We have preliminary information from residents saying that this is correct, they have laid mines at the temple site," he added.

"I hope that these reports are not correct, but we are worried."

He urged "Palmyra's residents, tribal chiefs and religious and cultural figures to intervene to prevent this... and prevent what happened in northern Iraq," referring to "ISIL" destruction of heritage sites there.

"I am very pessimistic and feel sadness," he added.

"ISIL" captured Palmyra, which is famed for its extensive and well-preserved ruins, on May 21.

The group has regularly heavily mined its territory to make it more difficult to recapture.

The city's fall prompted international concern about the fate of the heritage site described by UNESCO as of "outstanding universal value."

"ISIL" has released several videos documenting its destruction of heritage sites in Iraq and Syria.

The group executed more than 200 people in and around Palmyra in the days after capturing the city, including 20 who were shot dead in the ancient ruins, according to the Observatory.

In December, the UN said nearly 300 cultural heritage sites in Syria, including Palmyra, had been destroyed, damaged and looted.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team