IS destroys ancient monastery in central Syria

On Friday, IS posted photographs on social media sites showing bulldozers destroying the monastery.

The militants did not appear to have completely destroyed the building – which dates back to the 5th century – with explosives, as they have done with shrines and other religious buildings in the past.

The monitoring group Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said the Catholic monastery was then destroyed “on the pretext that it was used for worshipping others than God”.

Since capturing about a third of Syria and Iraq previous year, Islamic State fighters have destroyed mosques, churches and archaeological sites, causing extensive damage to the ancient cities of Nimrud, Hatra and Dura Europos.

The Director-General said that the destruction of the monastery is a tragic loss for the region and added that this cultural cleansing at the hands of ISIL/Daesh must stop.

A series of recent attacks has stoked fears that the Islamic State militants are accelerating their campaign to demolish and loot heritage sites.

In May, the extremists captured the central Syrian town of Palmyra raising fears they would demolish the 2,000-year-old Roman-era city at the edge of the town – a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the Mideast’s most iconic archaeological sites.

On Tuesday, Khaled Asaad, a respected 82-year-old scholar who worked for 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra, was beheaded, seemingly after ISIL failed to extract information on the whereabouts of hidden artefacts.

He had reportedly sheltered both Muslim and Christian Syrians fleeing the violence elsewhere in Homs province. He remains one of six clergy in Syria who have been kidnapped by rebel groups, their fates unknown.

On the day of the capture of Al-Qaryatayn, ISIS has kidnapped at least 230 people, including dozens of Christians. “We walked through the colonnades, more than a kilometer of attractive colonnades”.

Bokova stated current pictures of archaeological websites beneath IS management in Iraq and Syria present indicators of widespread unlawful digging and looting.