Palmyra

At the height of the Islamic State group's rampage across Syria, the world watched in horror as the militants blew up an iconic arch and temple in the country's famed Roman ruins in Palmyra.

Eight years later, restoration work on the site has been held up by security issues, leftover ISIL land mines and lack of funding.

Twenty artifacts repaired by Czech art restorers after being damaged during the civil war in Syria are on display at Prague's National Museum before their return back home next month.

The objects include three limestone funerary portraits from the UNESCO-listed ancient site of Palmyra, which were damaged by Islamic State group militants who took the city by force in 2015.

In the National Museum of Damascus, archaeologist Muntajab Youssef works on an ancient stone bust from Palmyra, one of hundreds of artefacts his team is painstakingly restoring after they were damaged by ISIL.

US-backed forces have repelled a raid by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group targeting barracks housing American and French troops in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Aug. 18.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that Islamic State killed at least 128 people in a Syrian town in central Homs over a three-week period before the Syrian army recaptured it on Saturday.

There was no immediate comment from Syrian government officials or state media on the report by the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.

Islamic State group has once again captured the city of Caryatain in Central Syria after a counter-attack on government forces, DPA reported, citing the Syrian Human Rights Watch Center.

Historic artifacts have survived throughout Syria's rich history but have taken its place amongst an array of those damaged during the six-year war in the country. 

The ancient city of Palmyra, which was seized and destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2015, had swung back under the Syrian government's control early March. 

The air forces of the US-led coalition are working to undermine the anti-terrorist efforts of the Syrian government, Colonel General Sergey Surovikin of the Russian ground forces has said.

Russia had fired 4 Kalibre cruise missiles against positions of they Islamic State near their stronghold in Raqqa. The missiles destroyed heavy equipment and killed fighters that Islamic State had transferred from its stronghold, Raqqa, to Palmyra, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

Some sculptures unearthed during archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Zeugma, which are on display at the Gaziantep Archaeology Museum, have been identified to have the same style as the ones in Syria's ancient Palmyra city, which is currently on the world's agenda after it received severe damage from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).