U.N. Agency Says Islamic State's Destruction of Ancient Temple Is a 'War Crime

Islamic State fighters have destroyed an ancient temple in the world-renowned Syrian antiquities city of Palmyra, the latest effort to purge the area from what the militant group considers to be un-Islamic.

The United Nations' cultural agency called the destruction of the ancient temple of Baalshamin a "war crime."

“The systematic destruction of cultural symbols embodying Syrian cultural diversity reveals the true intent of such attacks, which is to deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity and history. One week after the killing of Professor Khaled al-Assaad, the archaeologist who had looked after Palmyra's ruins for four decades, this destruction is a new war crime and an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity,” UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said in a statement Monday.

The Baalshamin Temple in Palmyra, Syria, before it was destroyed. (Image via Wikimedia Commons/Bernard Gagnon)

The destruction occurred just days after the historical site’s 81-year-old director of antiquities was beheaded, apparently after he refused to tell Islamic State militants the location of ancient treasures whisked away for safekeeping from the jihadi group.

"Daesh placed a large quantity of explosives in the temple of Baalshamin today and then blew it up causing much damage to the temple," Syria's antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told Agence France-Presse on Sunday, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. "The cella [inner area of the temple] was destroyed and the columns around collapsed," he said.

"Our darkest predictions are unfortunately taking place," Abdulkarim added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based group with extensive sources in Syria, confirmed the temple had been destroyed.

The Associated Press quoted activists who said the blast was so powerful it damaged some Roman columns nearby.

The city of Palmyra, along with the 2,000-year-old Roman-era antiquities site of the same name, was seized by the Islamic State group in May.

The AP noted that there was some discrepancy in the reported timing of the destruction, with the Syrian Observatory saying it had been destroyed a month ago, while Syria’s antiquities director and a Turkish-based activist originally from Palmyra asserting it was blown up on Sunday.

The Baalshamin Temple, dedicated to the Phoenician god of storms and fertilizing rains, was built in 17 AD.

The Islamic State group has looted or destroyed religious, artistic and historical sites in Iraq and Syria, claiming they promote idolatry and paganism. At the same time, it is also reported to sell antiquities on the black market to raise money for its military operations.

Among the destroyed sites are archaeological antiquities, museums, churches, monasteries and Shiite mosques.

Following last week’s bulldozing of a Syrian Christian monastery and the exhumation of a Christian saint’s tomb, Bokova called the “systematic” destruction “unprecedented.”

“The cultural cleansing underway at the hands of ISIL/Daesh must stop,” the UNESCO chief said Friday.