Palmyra's most famed temple destroyed: UN

The most famed temple in Syria's Palmyra has been blown up, the United Nations said on Aug. 31, showing satellite images of the damage as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) presses a campaign to tear down the treasured heritage site.

A powerful blast in the ancient city had raised fears the militant jihadists had escalated their push to rid Syria of what they view as un-Islamic artifacts after they destroyed the smaller Baal Shamin temple last week.
 
"We can confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity," the UN training and research agency UNITAR said, providing satellite images from before and after the explosion on Aug.30.
 
The 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel was the centrepiece of Palmyra's famed ruins and one of the most important relics of the heritage site, which has been described by the UN's cultural arm UNESCO as of "outstanding universal value".

 
ISIL fighters seized the city from Syrian regime forces in May and have since attacked the city's ruins and historic sites, which they consider idolatrous, and in mid-August beheaded the 82-year-old former antiquities chief in Palmyra.
 
The Sunni Muslim group has also been accused of destroying heritage sites to loot items to sell on the black market and to gain publicity for their campaign to bring vast swathes of Iraq and Syria under their own harsh interpretation of Islam.
 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said late on Aug.30 that ISIL fighters had set off boxes and barrels of explosives inside the 2,000-year-old temple, destroying the inner part of the building.
    
"This was the most important temple for tourists and for...