Ancient Syrian town falls to extremists

With Islamic State in control of Palmyra, fears arise historic sites in danger

Displaced Iraqis fleeing Islamic State militants in Ramadi cross Wednesday into Baghdad province after being granted conditional entry, a provincial official said.
Displaced Iraqis fleeing Islamic State militants in Ramadi cross Wednesday into Baghdad province after being granted conditional entry, a provincial official said.

BEIRUT -- Islamic State extremists captured the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra after government defense lines there collapsed Wednesday, although it remained unclear how close to the archaeological site the extremists advanced, activists said.

Syrian state TV acknowledged that pro-government forces have withdrawn from Palmyra. Beibares Tellawi, an activist in Homs province, confirmed the Islamic State was in control of the town.

Tellawi said the militants had reached the Tadmur prison, where thousands of Syrian dissidents have been imprisoned and tortured over the years. The fate of the prisoners, believed to number about 1,000, was not immediately known.

The fall of the town to the Islamic State is an enormous loss to the government, not only because of its cultural significance but also because it opens the way for extremists to advance to key government-held areas, including Homs and Damascus.

"Very few government forces exist between Palmyra and the Iraq-Syrian border, and this is a large geographic area," said Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Palmyra, 150 miles northeast of Damascus, contains the ruins of a 2,000-year-old city that was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world. The ruins at Palmyra are one of the region's most renowned historic sites, and there are fears the extremists would destroy them as they did major archaeological sites in Iraq.

Home to a UNESCO world heritage site, Palmyra is famous for its 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades. Before the war, thousands of tourists each year visited the remote desert outpost, also known as the "Bride of the Desert."

The Syrian government moved artifacts from Palmyra's museum to Damascus about 10 days ago, local opposition groups said. Even so, the prospect of the city's fall has sparked concerns for its future.

"I am terrified," said Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's director-general of antiquities and museums. "This is a PR battle for Daesh, and they will insist on scoring victory against civilization by destroying" the ancient ruins.

Abdulkarim appealed to the international community to declare "a red line" around Palmyra and called on the U.S.-led coalition to "at least prevent [the Islamic State group] convoys from reaching it."

Homs Gov. Talal Barazzi said earlier that Islamic State militants infiltrated overnight into some districts in the northern part of Palmyra, adding that there were ongoing street battles and snipers in the streets.

He said at least 19 people had died by early Wednesday, including seven civilians and 12 from the pro-government militia known as the National Defense Forces. It was not known how many people died as fighting continued throughout the day.

The advance in Palmyra comes as the U.S. is scrambling to come up with a response to the loss of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Anbar province.

Thousands of displaced people fleeing the violence in Ramadi and western Anbar province poured into Baghdad on Wednesday after the central government waived restrictions and granted them conditional entry.

Athal al-Fahdawi, an Anbar councilman, said thousands of civilians from Ramadi who were stranded on open land for days are now being allowed to cross a bridge spanning the Euphrates River and enter Baghdad province.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 40,000 people have been displaced from Anbar since Friday when the militants began their final push for Ramadi.

Elsewhere, a Canadian government official said Tuesday that police arrested 10 youths at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport last weekend who are suspected of planning to go to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State.

The official did not have any other details. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police later issued a statement confirming that 10 Montreal residents had been arrested at the airport.

The official said the youths were suspected of trying to join the Islamic State. The statement did not specifically mention the Islamic State, but it said the 10 youths were "suspected of wanting to leave the country to join jihadist groups."

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said no charges have been filed, but the investigation is ongoing.

Information for this article was contributed by Zeina Karam, Sameer N. Yacoub, Rob Gillies, Sinan Salaheddin and Albert Aji of The Associated Press; by Dana Khraiche, Nadeem Hamid and Nicole Gaouette of Bloomberg News; and by Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad of The New York Times.

A Section on 05/21/2015

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