An image posted online by the ISIS branch in the Syrian province of Homs appears to show the destruction by explosives of the ancient Baalshamin Temple, in the ruins at Palmyra, 215 kilometers (134 miles) northeast of Damascus.
Syria’s fabled desert oasis of Palmyra, a World Heritage site, saw its last tourist in September 2011, six months after the uprising began. Its most recent visitors are violence and looting. ISIS militants destroyed the Baalshamin Temple, Temple of Bel and beheaded a local antiquities scholar. The group also destroyed the 1,800 year-old Arch of Triumph.
UNESCO said ISIS was engaged in the “most brutal, systemic” destruction of ancient sites since World War II.
