Islamic State Beheads Top Syrian Antiquities Scholar

 

Syrian government says Khalid Asaad was killed in Palmyra

Islamic State militants have beheaded one of Syria’s most prominent antiquities scholars, 82-year-old Khalid Asaad, in the ancient Roman city of Palmyra.

Islamic State militants beheaded one of Syria’s most prominent antiquities scholars in the ancient city of Palmyra, the Syrian government said on Wednesday, inflicting yet another casualty in their anti-idolatry campaign across the heart of the Middle East.

A photo widely circulated on websites of antigovernment activists showed a body, purportedly that of 82-year-old Khalid Asaad, hanging on a pole in Palmyra’s main square.

Islamic State militants beheaded Mr. Asaad at the Palmyra museum courtyard on Tuesday, Syria’s state news agency reported, before transporting his body elsewhere in the city and hanging it from an ancient column whose restoration he had once supervised.

City residents and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based group that monitors the conflict via a network of activists, confirmed it was Mr. Asaad’s remains. The group said he had been held by Islamic State for more than a month before he was killed.

A sign tied to Mr. Asaad’s body said he had been killed because he had overseen Palmyra’s “idols” and attended “apostate” academic conferences abroad.

Mr. Asaad had served as director of the antiquities department of Palmyra, whose 2,000-year-old Roman-era columns and amphitheater make it one of the most renowned archaeological sites in the Middle East.

A friend of the prominent archaeologist, who was born and raised in Palmyra, said he was an “encyclopedia of ancient Syrian history.”

Syria’s Ministry of Culture called Mr. Asaad one of the country’s top archaeologists and a recognized expert in Palmyrian history.

“His work will live on far beyond the reach of these extremists,” Irina Bokova, director of the United Nations’ cultural agency Unesco, said Wednesday. “They murdered a great man, but they will never silence history.”

Locals loyal to Islamic State accused Mr. Asaad of making contact with regime officers, the Observatory said, including his brother, a senior government security officer.

Islamic State had promised to release him, it added, citing people close to Mr. Asaad. Those people called his execution a shock.

Fighters of the Sunni Muslim extremist group captured Palmyra on May 21. Since then, they have demolished ancient statues and two mausoleums, one the grave of a revered Shiite Muslim saint and the other the resting place of an esteemed Sufi scholar.

They staged a recent execution video in the city’s vaunted second-century Roman amphitheater, killing 25 government soldiers.

Young fighters called “cubs of the caliphate” forced the uniformed men to their knees, then shot each in head.

In the past two years, Islamic State militants have destroyed ancient sites and artifacts, many of which they say promote idolatry.

Among the wrecked sites are the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq, bulldozed in March, and artifacts at Hatra, designated a world heritage site by Unesco. In February, a video was released showing Islamic State fighters destroying ancient Assyrian artifacts in a museum in Mosul, the largest Iraqi city held by the group.

Since the takeover, thousands of civilians have fled Palmyra as its infrastructure has collapsed, with food and utilities in short supply.

“There is shortage of electricity and people are resorting to using old wells for water,” said one local activist.

Last month the Syrian regime tried to recapture Palmyra by launching a campaign of protracted airstrikes but made little headway. It eventually abandoned the effort, instead focusing its thin resources on defending other areas deemed more strategic.

These include the capital Damascus and areas in the country’s center and west. The regime’s two main regional allies, Iran and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, are playing a leading role in this effort.

Hezbollah fighters, reinforced by regime airstrikes, were poised to take over the contested rebel-held town of Zabadani, 25 miles northwest of Damascus, activists said Wednesday. The campaign to capture Zabadani, which borders Lebanon, began in early July.

On another front near Damascus, fierce clashes were continuing on Wednesday between regime forces and Islamist rebels around a major military base in the town of Harasta on the eastern outskirts of the capital.

At least 12 people were killed in regime airstrikes on Harasta Wednesday, according to opposition activists.

Islamist fighters in the nearby rebel-held city of Douma began the offensive to capture the base in Harasta last week. In response the regime launched a barrage of airstrikes and rocket attacks on Douma. The worst was on Sunday when 112 people were killed and more than 550 wounded, mostly civilians, in a series of regime strikes against open-air markets, according to residents and medics in Douma.

WSJ