First images show Palmyra damage ‘less than feared’ as experts race to ancient city

Archaeologists were rushing to the ancient city of Palmyra on Monday to assess the damage wreaked by the Islamic State group, after it was ousted by the Syrian army in a bloody battle. As the first images emerged of the city, President Bashar al-Assad hailed the victory as “important”. Damascus reportedly dispatched experts to check the extent of the carnage on the UNESCO world heritage site. An AFP correspondent inside Palmyra said some monuments, including the iconic Temple of Bel, lay in pieces almost a year after jihadists seized the site, but much of the ancient city was intact.

We were expecting the worst. But the landscape, in general, is in good shape. We could have completely lost Palmyra… The joy I feel is indescribable.

Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim

Syrian soldiers, pro-government militiamen and Russian fighters strolled among the ruins in awe after seizing the city on Sunday, while regime troops kicked around a football in the middle of a street. The Islamic State group sparked a global outcry when they started destroying Palmyra’s treasured monuments, which they consider idolatrous, after taking the city in May 2015. Syria’s antiquities chief said the priceless artefacts had survived better than feared from a campaign of destruction UNESCO described as a “war crime”. IS had used Palmyra’s ancient theatre as a venue for public executions and also murdered the city’s 82-year-old former antiquities chief.

That’s the heaviest losses that IS has sustained in a single battle since its creation

Rami Abdel Rahman, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on reports 400 IS fighters had died

Palmyra