BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say the Islamic State militants, after seizing the ancient town of Palmyra in central Syria, are now also in full control of its famed archaeological site.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the extremists overrun the site, just to the southwest of Palmyra, shortly after midnight Wednesday.
An activist in the central province of Homs who goes by the name of Bebars al-Talawy also says that IS now controls the ruins at Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site famous for its 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and other ruins and priceless artifacts. Before the war, thousands of tourists a year visited the remote desert outpost, a cherished landmark referred to by Syrians as the "Bride of the Desert."
Both activists said Thursday that IS has not damaged the ruins so far. There are fears the extremists would destroy the ruins as they did major archaeological sites in Iraq.
IS extremists captured the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra after government defense lines there collapsed Wednesday, a stunning triumph for the group only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq.
The fall of the town to IS after a week of fighting was an enormous loss to the government, not only because of its cultural significance, but because it opens the way for the extremists to advance to key government-held areas, including Damascus and the Syrian coast to the south and southwest, as well as the contested eastern city of Deir el-Zour to the east.
Next to it are also important gas and oil fields in the country's central region.
The fall of Palmyra showed IS' ability to advance on multiple fronts at opposite ends of a sprawling battlefield that spans the two countries — and erased any sense that recent IS losses in Tikrit and elsewhere had dealt a major blow to the militants.
The Syrian Observatory for human rights reported that government forces collapsed in the face of IS attacks and withdrew from the town late Wednesday. Beibares Tellawi, an activist in Homs province, also confirmed IS was in control of the town.
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