IS beheads chief archaeologist at Syrian Palmyra

The family of Khaled Asaad are said to have been told that the 82-year-old scholar who worked for more than 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra was executed by ISIS yesterday.

THE beheading by Isis jihadists of an “irreplaceable” antiquities scholar, who had spent decades protecting the archaeological treasures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, sparked an worldwide outcry.

According to Syrian state news agency SANA, al-Asaad was beheaded on Tuesday in a square outside the town’s museum.

Al-Asaad, who held a diploma in history and education from the University of Damascus, wrote many books and scientific texts either individually or in cooperation with other Syrian or foreign archeologists, SANA said.

Abdalrazzaq Moaz, Syria’s ex deputy minister in charge of cultural heritage, denounced al-As’ad’s execution as a catastrophe.

The antiquities minister, Mamoun Abdulkarim, was a friend of Asaad’s and – according to Alice’s reporting for All Things Considered – he begged Asaad to leave Syria “because [he] was very important”. They consider artefacts idolatrous, therefore, destroying those. He hailed Mr al-Assaad as a leading expert on the ancient history of the city, which grew from a caravan oasis first mentioned in the second millennium BC.

The Fall of Palmyra, which was reported on by The Christian Post in May, was seen as particularly devastating to experts of antiquities because of its well preserved Roman ruins.

Dozens of people are believed to have witnessed the killing. A sign tied to the corpse identifies it as al-Asaad and describes him as an “apostate” and “supporter of the Alawite regime”, in reference to the minority religious group of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Khaled al-Asaad, the former director of Palmyra’s historic site and museum, in front of a sarcophagus.

He worked with U.S., French, German and Swiss archaeologists on excavations and research in the city’s famed 2,000-year-old ruins.

And Khalil Hariri from Palmyra’s archaeological department bewailed his death to the Associated Press, asking simply: “Why did they kill him?” The statue, discovered in 1975, had stood at the gates of the town museum.

The killing is one of hundreds that have been carried out by Isis in and around Palmyra since they took the city. They promptly executed him when he refused to provide any information.