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May 24, 2015

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IS fighters enter Syrian museum, but artifacts safe

ISLAMIC State fighters broke into the museum of the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra, though its artifacts have been removed and are safe, a local official said yesterday.

The IS group captured Palmyra in the central province of Homs on Wednesday, raising concerns around the world it would destroy priceless, 2,000-year-old temples, tombs and colonnades located in the town’s south.

A picture circulated on Twitter of supporters of the group show the black flag used by the extremists raised over the town’s hilltop castle, a structure hundreds of years old.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Damascus, said the militants entered the museum on Friday afternoon, locked the doors and left behind their own guards. He said that the artifacts earlier had been moved away to safety.

“We feel proud as all the museum’s contents were taken to safe areas,” but he warned that the Islamic State group’s control of the town remains a danger to its archaeological sites.

The group has destroyed several sites in Syria and Iraq, and also has had a lucrative business by excavating and selling artifacts on the black market.

The city’s museum and artifacts were damaged and looted earlier during Syria’s four-year civil war. In a 2014 government report prepared for the United Nation’s cultural agency, damage already was recorded because of fighting in the area around the Temple Bel. Bullets and shells hit the temple’s columns, while two of its southern columns had collapsed.

Abdulkarim said about 6,300 artifacts from Syria were seized and smuggled out of the country in the past four years.

IS holds large amounts of territory in Syria and neighboring Iraq. In Iraq, police Colonel Aziz al-Shihawi said Iraqi troops and Shiite militia yesterday recaptured the town of Hussiba in Anbar province. He said Iraqi allied forces killed several militants before they withdrew.

Baghdad said preparations are under way to launch a counteroffensive in Anbar involving Iran-backed Shiite militias, who have already played a key role in fighting IS. But the presence of the militias could fuel tension in the Sunni province, where anger at the Shiite-led government runs deep.




 

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