Militants Damage a Temple in Palmyra

A week after reports of destruction by Islamic State militants in the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, fighters severely damaged the Temple of Baal there, one of the oldest and culturally significant in the region, according to activists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist and monitoring group based in Britain, said Sunday that Islamic State fighters had destroyed part of the nearly 2,000-year-old temple.

A resident of Palmyra, Nasser al-Thaer, told The Associated Press, "It is total destruction," adding, "It was an explosion the deaf would hear."

Consecrated in A.D. 32 to the Semitic god Baal, the temple was a source of pride for Syrians and stood not far from where the other building, the Temple of Baalshamin, was destroyed.

The entire ancient city of Palmyra, which stands in the desert about 150 miles northeast of Damascus, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Last week, the Islamic State released propaganda images showing its earlier destruction of the Roman-era Baalshamin Temple. According to Al Jazeera, satellite images in the past several days confirmed its destruction.

Fighting in the region continued Sunday, with Islamic State fighters clashing with other militants in southern Damascus, according to The Associated Press. More than two dozen militants were killed in the fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

As it has seized territory in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State has attacked a number of historic sites, blowing up tombs and destroying statues that are forbidden by its extremist interpretation of Islam. Archaeologists and antiquities experts consider the losses to be irreparable.

"I feel very weak, very pessimistic," Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's director general of antiquities, said last week in a telephone interview in light of the Baalshamin explosions.

Almost two weeks ago the militants killed one of the most esteemed caretakers of the ruins. Khaled al-Asaad, 83, the retired antiquities director at Palmyra, was beheaded in a public square and his body suspended from a traffic light.

Militants routed government forces to capture Palmyra in May.

Residents of Palmyra, both supporters and critics of President Bashar Assad, described an ill-equipped local government and its forces, many of whom fled during the onset of the attack.