The Islamic State Advances on Ancient City of Palmyra, Raising Fears of Its Destruction

The Islamic State has advanced to the outskirts of the ancient city of Palmyra, raising fears that one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world will be destroyed, AFP reports.

UNESCO describes Palmyra as a heritage site of “outstanding universal value.” It is strategically located on the road between the capital Damascus and the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, and is close to gas fields.

On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that ISIS was mounting an assault on Tadmur, a town next to the ruins of Palmyra.

As the Islamic State overran nearby villages, it executed 26 civilians – 10 of whom were beheaded – for “collaborating with the regime.”

“IS has not entered the city yet, and we hope these barbarians will never enter,” Syria’s head of antiquities Maamoun Abdulkarim said. “But if IS enters Palmyra, it will be destroyed and it will be an international catastrophe.”

Irina Bokova, head of the U.N.’s cultural body, UNESCO, called on Syrian troops and the militants to spare Palmyra, saying it “represents an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people, and the world.”

The jihadist advance on the ancient site came as an international conference took place in Cairo to address ISIS’ demolition of several ancient sites in Iraq, including Nimrud and Hatra.

“If IS enters Palmyra, it will spell its destruction … It will be a repetition of the barbarism and savagery which we saw in Nimrud, Hatra and Mosul,” said the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman.

Ferocious clashes between regime forces and the Islamic State were also reported as al-Sukhanah, a town in eastern Syria under the administration of the Homs Governorate, fell to the militant group.

Al-Sukhanah is strategically located on the highway that leads from eastern Deir Ezzor province, an ISIS stronghold, to the ancient regime-controlled town of Palmyra.

Homs’ provincial governor, Talal Barazi, said 1,800 families from the town were sheltering in nearby Tadmur. Meanwhile, Syrian government airstrikes on southern Aleppo province killed at least 39 civilians, including 17 children. Dozens of people were wounded in the attacks, which involved both missile strikes and barrel bombing, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The Syrian government has been repeatedly condemned for its indiscriminate use of barrel bombs, containers packed with explosives and projectiles that are dropped from helicopters on civilian areas.

Hundreds of Potential Terror Suspects Who Traveled to Syria Back in U.K.

Police in the U.K. said on Thursday that more than 700 potential terror suspects had traveled to Syria, with hundreds of them returning to the U.K., the Guardian reports.

“The number of people who have traveled to Syria has passed 700, in terms of those who are of significant concern to us and the security services,” said the Metropolitan Police’s assistant commissioner Mark Rowley.

“They are not aid workers or visiting relatives – they are people of real concern that they are getting involved in fighting or are supportive of it. They are potential terrorist suspects.”

Asked about how many of them had returned to the U.K. from Syria, he said, “It is a fairly even balance between those still out there and those who have come back.”

Fears of terrorist attacks in the West have heightened in the wake of the rise of the Islamic State, which now governs large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and has attracted thousands of foreign jihadis to its cause.

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