Takfiri Daesh (ISIL) terrorists have executed three people in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra in the central Homs Province, a monitoring group says.
The head of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said Daesh terrorists on Sunday tied the victims to ancient columns in the city and blew them up.
It is reportedly not clear yet who the victims were or why they had been killed.
According to Syria’s Archeology Association, more than 900 monuments and archeological sites have been looted, damaged or destroyed by the terrorists in Syria since 2011. ISIL terrorists consider the historic monuments and temples as “satanic.” The terrorists are reported to be engaged in smuggling parts of the ancient structures out of Syria at the same time.
Known as the “Pearl of the Desert,” the ancient oasis town of Palmyra was listed as a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1980.
The Daesh militant group, which controls parts of land in Syria and Iraq, overran the historic city of Palmyra on May 21. Since then, the terrorist group has blown up a number of temples and mined other monuments.
Syria army advances
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces have carried out large-scale mop-up operations against foreign-backed militants across the conflict-ridden Arab country, inflicting heavy losses on terrorists and destroying their hideouts.
Syrian army soldiers re-established control over 50 villages and farms in the southern countryside of Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, and a number of strategic hills in Latakia’s countryside, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported on Monday.
Scores of extremists were reportedly killed and a considerable amount of their arms and munitions was destroyed during the operation.
Syrian troopers also killed the members of a terrorist group known as the so-called Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union, in the Daraya area in Western Ghouta on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.
Syrian army soldiers backed by fighters from allied popular defense groups also restored control over Dahrit al-Kasara in the northern countryside of Quneitra.
This is while Syrian fighter jets pounded terrorist positions in the countryside of Hama and Idlib provinces, leaving scores of them dead.
There was no report on the possible casualties among Syrian troopers.
The foreign-backed conflict in Syria, which flared up in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to the United Nations (UN).
The world body says 12.2 million people, including more than 5.6 million children, remain in need of humanitarian assistance.
The foreign-sponsored militancy has also displaced 7.6 million people.