IS blows up Arch of Triumph in Syria’s Palmyra: activist, monitor

Islamic militants have reportedly destroyed the Arch of Triumph which is a major monument in the 2,000-year-old Roman city of Palmyra.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, the country’s antiquities chief, told the Reuters news agency that the Islamic State had blown up the Arch of Triumph, which marked the entrance to Palmyra’s main street.

It follows the destruction of a number of other temples and statues at the Roman-era UNESCO world heritage site, carried out since IS captured it in May. The group considers the buildings sacrilegious.

“It’s like all you can find a spell that’s befallen melbourne australia and suppose only reports that could hit people”.

Known as the “Pearl of the Desert”, the ancient oasis town of Palmyra was listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1980.

It is the latest historical site to be destroyed by IS in the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria.

“We believe, according to crossed testimonies that we have received, that the bombing took place on Sunday”, he said, adding that “IS has for weeks used excavators around the arch before booby-trapping it”. They want to raze it completely.

“This is a systematic destruction of the city”.

Since capturing it last May, the terror-labelled group destroyed the city’s notorious military prison and several Islamic tombs.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group and local activist Mohammad Hassan al-Homsi backed up the account, saying the arch had been ruined. “IS has destroyed it”, said Homsi.

Activists said the city has also been damaged by heavy bombardment from barrel bombs dropped by Syrian government forces.

It is thought to have been built about 2,000 years ago.

Western powers have accused Russian Federation of instead targeting moderate opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an important ally of Moscow.