ISIS militants entered Palmyra

The armed forces of the Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, a terrorist organization banned in Russia) after fierce battles with Syrian government troops and their allies captured about a third of the ancient city of Palmyra.

This was reported by Reuters about the link to the information of the Supervisory Board of Human Rights in Syria. Previous attacks on the city over the past weekend were reflected.

The head of the Syrian Government Department for the protection of monuments, Maamun Abdulkamim, confirmed that the "small groups" of the militants penetrated the city and called on the Syrian army and the international community to save UNESCO World Heritage Objects, RBC reports.

According to Abdulkarim, hundreds of statues have already been taken from a historical city to safe places. “The fate of large monuments that cannot be moved is caused by fear,” he said.

Palmyra is located in the Syrian desert 240 km northeast of Damascus. According to legend, founded by King Solomon. Subsequently, thanks to the advantageous position between the Mediterranean Sea and the Valley, Euphrates Palmir became one of the richest cities in late antiquity, it was called the “bride of the desert”.

Now, in the place of Palmyra, there are ruins of structures belonging to the best samples of ancient Roman architecture and UNESCO recognized by the Universal Heritage Monument-Colonnades and Monumental Arks, the Bael Temple (II century), Agora (III century), a theater with a public center and caravanserai.

In the territory controlled by ISIS, there are about two thousand archaeological antiquities, including books that jihadists destroy as contradicting the teachings of Islam. In January 2015, ISIS militants plundered the Central Library of Mosul and the library of the University of Mosul and burned thousands of books in the eyes of students, in February they defeated many sculptures in the Mosul Museum, and destroyed the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in March.