BEIRUT: A powerful blast in the ruins of Syria’s ancient Palmyra raised fears on Monday that the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group has damaged another of the Middle East’s most treasured heritage sites.

Both Syria’s antiquities chief and a monitor reported Sunday’s explosion at the Unesco World Heritage site, but there was conflicting information on the fate of its famed Temple of Bel.

IS destroyed the smaller Baal Shamin temple at Palmyra last week, confirming the worst fears about their intentions for the site, which they seized from Syrian regime forces in May.

The militants have carried out a sustained campaign of destruction against heritage sites in areas under their control in Syria and Iraq, and in mid-August beheaded the 82-year-old former antiquities chief in Palmyra.

The extremist group considers statues and grave markers to be idolatrous, but it has also been accused of destroying heritage sites to loot items for the black market and to gain publicity.

Inner part of the Temple of Bel said to have been destroyed in the explosion

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said late on Sunday that IS fighters had set off explosives inside the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel, at least partially destroying the centrepiece of Palmyra’s famed ruins.

Mohammad Hassan al-Homsi, an activist from Palmyra, said the inner part of the temple was destroyed in the blast.

The militants detonated “boxes and barrels” that were filled with explosives and put in place on Sunday, he said.

“This was the most important temple for tourists and for the people of Palmyra. They used to hold festivals there.” But Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdul­karim said the explosion did not appear to have damaged the temple significantly.

“The frontal columns and the cella (interior) of the temple do not appear to have been damaged,” he said on Monday.

“According to the information we received from the town, the temple is still standing, but antiquities staff are not able to enter the site to see close up,” he said.

France condemned the attack. “With this attack against a Unesco-recognised archaeological jewel... Daesh is persisting in its criminal determination to wipe out the cultural diversity in the Middle East,” said foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

There were no immediate images released by IS of the reported destruction.

The reports come a week after IS blew up the Baal Shamin temple, an act the UN’s cultural agency Unesco called a “war crime”.

That destruction was first reported by activists and Abdulkarim and was later shown in photos released by IS. The UN training and research agency Unitar said new satellite images of Palmyra confirmed the demolition.

IS captured Palmyra on May 21, sparking international concern about the fate of the heritage site described by Unesco as of “outstanding universal value”.—AFP

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2015

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