Monastery in central Syria near town where dozens of Christians were abducted by group earlier in August.
Islamic State militants standing inside the ancient monastery of the
Saint Eliane, near the town of Qaryatain which ISIS captured in early
August, in Homs province, Syria.
The Islamic State group on Friday demolished a monastery founded more
than 1,500 years ago in central Syria, near a town where the extremists
abducted dozens of Christians earlier this month, activists and a
Christian priest said.
The destruction of the Saint Elian Monastery near the town of Qaryatain
comes days after ISIS militants in the town of Palmyra publicly beheaded
an 81-year-old antiquities scholar who had dedicated his life to
studying and overseeing Palmyra’s iconic ancient ruins.
The developments have stoked concerns that ISIS may be accelerating its
campaign to destroy and loot non-Islamic and pre-Islamic heritage sites
inside the vast swaths of Iraq and Syria currently controlled by the
militant group.
“I think we are worried about almost all the heritage sites in Syria.
Nothing is safe,” said Irina Bokova, director general of UNESCO,
speaking in an interview with The Associated Press. She added that the
Islamic State group’s, “view on culture and heritage is just the
opposite of what UNESCO stands for.”
A bulldozer of the Islamic State militants destroying the Saint
Eliane Monastery near the town of Qaryatain which ISIS captured in early
August, in Homs province, Syria.AP
The extremist group, which captured the Qaryatain area in early August,
posted photos on social media Friday showing bulldozers destroying the
Saint Elian Monastery
A Christian clergyman told the AP in Damascus that ISIS militants also
wrecked a church inside the monastery that dates back to the 5th
century. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which
tracks Syria’s conflict, also reported the destruction of the monastery.
A Qaryatain resident who recently fled to Damascus called on the
United Nations to protect Christians as well as ancient Christian sites
in Syria.
The Saint Eliane Monastery near the town of Qaryatain, which IS captured in early August, in Homs province, Syria.AP
The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear his relatives
still in Qaryatain might be harmed, said militants levelled the shrine
and removed the church bells.
Osama Edward, the director of the Christian Assyrian Human Rights
Network, told the AP that government shelling of the area had already
damaged the monastery over the past two weeks before ISIS fighters
destroyed it.
“Daesh continued the destruction of the monastery,” said Edward, using
an Arabic acronym to refer to the Islamic State group. He said the
monastery was founded in 432.
Christian priest Jacques Mourad, who lived at the monastery, was
kidnapped from the area in May and remains missing. According to Edward,
Mourad had actively welcomed and sheltered both Muslim and Christian
Syrians fleeing the fighting elsewhere in Homs province.
Activists said that shortly after capturing Qaryatain, the Islamic State
group abducted 230 residents, including dozens of Christians. Activists
said some Christians were released, though the fate of the others is
still unknown.
In February, ISIS kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians, after
overrunning several farming communities on the southern bank of the
Khabur River in the northeastern province of Hassakeh. Only a few have
been released and the fate of the others remains unknown.
Since capturing about a third of Syria and Iraq last year, ISIS fighters
have destroyed mosques, churches and archaeological sites, causing
extensive damage to the ancient cities of Nimrud, Hatra and Dura
Europos.
ISIS fighters overran the historic town of Palmyra in May. On Tuesday,
famed Palmyra expert Khaled al-Asaad was publicly beheaded by Islamic
State militants, his bloodied body hung on a pole in a main square,
according to witnesses and relatives.
Antiquities officials said they believed ISIS militants had interrogated
al-Asaad, a long-time director of the site, trying to get him to
divulge where authorities had hidden treasures secreted out of Palmyra
before the extremists seized the ruins.
The brutal killing stunned Syria’s archaeological community and
underscored fears the extremists will destroy or loot the 2,000-year-old
Roman-era city on the edge of a modern town of the same name, as they
have other major archaeological sites.
Al-Asaad was known in the archaeological community as “Mr. Palmyra” and
Bokova recalled him as, “a man who stood for more than 50 years behind
Palmyra’s research, a man who inscribed Palmyra on the world heritage
list in the 80s, who dedicated his life to research.”
She recalled first visiting Palmyra with al-Asaad as her guide. “He
introduced me to this beautiful Venice of the desert, as it was called.
We walked through the colonnades, more than a kilometer of beautiful
colonnades.”
Now she fears that Palmyra may suffer the same fate as other heritage
sites which fell under ISIS control. Archaeological experts have
speculated that ISIS has, in the past, used the destruction of heritage
sites to cover for the lucrative looting and selling of archaeological
treasures.
“We know that some of the destruction has started,” in Palmyra, Bokova
said. Recent satellite images have revealed, “a terrible network of
literally holes dug into the lands around Palmyra and inside, for
illicit excavations and then eventually trafficking and looting,” she
said.
The Associated Press
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.672300
και πως ο δράστης είναι επικίνδυνος και φανατικός ισλαμιστής!
Πρόκειται
για μία σειρά εχθροπραξιών που διαπράχθηκε από τις ναζιστικές
γερμανικές δυνάμεις κατά των αμάχων κατοίκων των εννέα χωριών που
βρίσκονται στην κοιλάδα του Αμαρίου στο νησί της Κρήτης κατά τη διάρκεια
της κατοχής της από τον Άξονα τον Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο.
