Daesh Commits Mass Executions after Retaking Palmyra
Local Editor
Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL' group] carried out a new wave of executions in the ancient ruins of Palmyra after re-taking the Syrian city.
Monitors said teachers were among 12 people murdered in front of crowds of men and children, either having their throats slit or being shot by terrorists.
The Palmyra Monitor group said captives were murdered in three separate locations - so-called Free Syrian Army and Syrian soldiers in two groups at the Roman theatre and in an abandoned Russian military base, and civilians outside Palmyra Museum.
"There are now fears that Daesh may carry out more executions of civilians who were arrested after it took control of the city," the group said.
"There are about 75 Palmyrene civilians still under arrest by Daesh and dozens of regime soldiers and militia men."
There were differing reports of the methods of execution, with Palmyra Monitor saying the soldiers had their throats slit, while the civilians were shot.
Daesh favored Palmyra as a setting for its gory execution videos after first gaining control of the city in 2015, including footage showing the killing of 25 soldiers in its Roman theatre, formerly a famed tourist attraction.
Militants publicly beheaded the city's 81-year-old head of antiquities, Khaled al-Assad, after he helped remove artefacts from the museum and refused to reveal the location of hidden treasures from the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Daesh, which views the Roman ruins as idolatrous, destroyed countless precious structures including the Temple of Baalshamin, during its first, 10-month period of control in Palmyra.
The group was driven out of the city by Syrian government forces and militias backed by Russian air strikes in March 2016, but returned last month after troops were pulled out for the Syrian army's offensive on Aleppo.
Most recently, Daesh destroyed one of the most famous monuments in the ancient city of Palmyra.
Syria's antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdulkarim, said the terrorist group had demolished the Tetrapylon and damaged the facade of its Roman theatre.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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