Roundup: Temple of Bel's destruction means beginning of end of Syria's Palmyra

The latest bombing of the 2,000-year-old temple of Bel in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra means the beginning of end of this millennia-old oasis city, the country's antiquities chief told Xinhua Tuesday.

The Islamic State (IS) on Sunday detonated the temple of Bel with tons of explosives, sending one of Syria's most prized treasures and the landmark of Palmyra up in flames.

The incident marked the second major IS attack on the most important sites in the antiquities of Palmyra since the terror group conquered the city last May.

Late last month, the terror group detonated the temple of Baal Shamin, a second-century structure, whose destruction was condemned by the UNESCO as a war crime.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Damascus, said the explosion against the temple of Bel totally destroyed the temple, which is the main building in that sprawling complex.

He said the complex, stretched on 43,000 square meters, constitutes of the temple in the middle, hallways at the edges of the four high closed walls and a giant front gate.

"Nothing is left from the temple except the gate," he said.

"What happened in the temple of Bel means the beginning of the end of Palmyra... it could usher in the complete destruction of Palmyra," Abdulkarim said, expressing pessimism about the prospects of the ancient ruins of Palmyra with the ongoing destruction carried out by the IS militants.

"We don't have any bit of optimism, as pessimism is prevailing. We have got to embrace for the worse," added Abdulkarim.

The antiquities chief said the IS "don't respect the heritage... They will destroy everything in their way and take revenge of the city and the world... It's a huge loss to one of the most important component of the Syrian culture."

The United Nations released satellite images, confirming the destruction of the main temple of Bel except for a two still standing columns after Sunday's massive explosion.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric denounced the destruction of the temple of Bel, saying in a statement that "we condemned in the strongest possible terms the wanton destruction of a site of incalculable value to our shared global heritage."

The Syrian foreign ministry also condemned the blast of the temple on Tuesday, saying that "once again IS shows its barbaric face through destroying the temple of Bel, one of the most prominent landmarks of the historical city of Palmyra."

"This new crime against Syria's historical and cultural heritage reveals the truth of the aggression targeting Syria that is aimed at undermining its existence, identity, cultural memory and renewed role throughout history," the ministry said in a statement.

Since capturing Palmyra, the terror-labeled group destroyed the city's notorious military prison and several Islamic tombs.

The IS also committed public executions of government soldiers and people accused of working for the government.

Their latest execution was against Khaled Asaad, a prominent Syrian archeologist who had lived in Palmyra for most of his life and dedicated himself to study the archeological sites of Palmyra.

Government officials said the IS militants were trying to extract information of Asaad about the "hidden gold" of Palmyra, which, they said, doesn't even exist.

Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world.

Syria has many prehistoric, Greek, Byzantine and Islamic heritages. Before the crisis, Syria had attracted many multinational archaeological missions coming for searching new clues of historical facts on the development of civilizations. Endit