TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsIS jihadists threaten Syria's ancient Palmyra: monitor
Islamic State group jihadists battled Syrian troops near ancient Palmyra Thursday, threatening the UNESCO world heritage site with destruction like that which it has already wreaked in Iraq, a monitoring group said
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
I
slamic State group jihadists battled Syrian troops near ancient Palmyra Thursday, threatening the UNESCO world heritage site with destruction like that which it has already wreaked in Iraq, a monitoring group said.
After a lightning advance across the desert in which they overran government forces in ferocious fighting in which 110 combatants were killed, the jihadists were within two kilometres (a little more than a mile) of the ruins, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"Palmyra is under threat," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
"IS has taken all the army posts between Al-Sukhnah and Palmyra" in its drive towards the oasis town from its stronghold in the Euphrates valley to the east, he added.
UNESCO describes Palmyra as a heritage site of "outstanding universal value". It contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
The threat to its well-preserved 1st and 2nd Century temples and colonnaded streets comes as an international conference is under way in Cairo to address the destruction already wreaked by IS on the ancient sites of Nimrud and Hatra in Iraq. (*)
