Russia issues warning over Palmyra as video shows fresh damage

Russia has released drone footage showing new destruction in Syria's historic town of Palmyra, which was recently recaptured by Islamic State, and warned the militants could be planning further demolition of antiquities.

Footage taken from the Russian Defense Ministry purports to show damage to the Roman-era amphitheatre. Picture: AP

The Russian defence ministry said Syrian government forces are advancing towards the town as another battle for the ancient site looms.

The video showed that the militants have badly damaged the facade of the Roman-era amphitheatre and the Tetrapylon – a set of four monuments with four columns each at the centre of the colonnaded road leading to the theatre.

The video appears to show that only two of the 16 columns remain standing.

IS militants have destroyed ancient sites across their self-styled Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq, perceiving them as monuments to idolatry. Palmyra, a Unesco world heritage site that once linked 
Persia, India and China with the Roman Empire and the Mediterranean, has already seen destruction at the hands of IS.

The ancient town first fell to IS militants in May 2015, when they held it for ten months.

During that time, the extremists destroyed ancient temples and eventually emptied the town of most of its residents, causing an international ­outcry.

The extremists were eventually driven out by Russian and Syrian government forces, but they seized the town again in December.

Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement yesterday that Syrian government troops advancing towards the city are about 12 miles away.

It said Russian warplanes last week carried out more than 90 sorties to provide air cover for the offensive.

It added that some 200 IS fighters have been killed and that Syrian forces destroyed 180 “infrastructure objects” and 15 ammunition depots.

The drone footage, which the Russian defence ministry said was filmed earlier this month, showed a central section of Palmyra’s theatre lying in ruins.

The ministry said its drones also recorded significant truck movements in the area around the archaeological site, which could mean that the IS militants are bringing explosives to the site.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of Syria’s antiquities department, said last month that reports of the recent destruction first trickled out in late December.

Satellite images surfaced in January.