DAMASCUS, Syria—Fears mounted over the fate of one of the Mideast’s most prominent archaeological sites after Islamic State (IS) militants overran the historic Syrian town of Palmyra, seizing control on Thursday of its temples, tombs and colonnades within hours.
The takeover also expanded the extremists’ hold, making them the single group controlling the most territory in Syria.
“The Syrian regime appears to be in terminal decline, and the [IS] group in its timing is capitalizing on recent losses by government forces in the north and south,” said Amr Al-Azm, an antiquities expert and professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio.
The militants overran the famed archaeological site early on Thursday, just hours after seizing the nearby town in central Syria, activists and officials said.
They also captured Palmyra’s airport and the notorious Tadmur prison, delivering a startling new defeat for President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces quickly retreated.
Hundreds of Palmyra residents fled the town of 65,000, and many more were trying to escape, said Talal Barazi, the governor of central Homs province, which includes Palmyra.
An oasis set in the Syrian desert, Palmyra is a strategic crossroads linking the capital Damascus and cities to the east and the west.
Its capture raised alarm over some of the world’s most important ancient ruins, whose fate remained unknown on Thursday, and no photos or video emerged from the militants.
“We are in a state of anticipation and fear,” said Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museum Department in Damascus. “The city is now totally controlled by gunmen and its destiny is dark and dim.”
A United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization world heritage site, Palymra boasts 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades, temples and priceless artifacts that have earned it the affectionate name among Syrians of the “Bride of the Desert.”
They are the remnants of an Arab client state of the Roman Empire that briefly rebelled and carved out its own kingdom in the 3rd century, led by Queen Zenobia, with Palmyra as its capital. Before the war, it was Syria’s top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.
It includes a 3,000-seat amphitheater overlooking a colonnaded main avenue where plays, concerts and youth festivals were staged.
With the capture of Palmyra, the IS militants now control half of Syria and most of the country’s oil wells, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, making it the group with the most territory under its authority among the myriad factions fighting in the country’s civil war.
Its vast terrain inside Syria stretches from the group’s westernmost strongholds in Aleppo province to its core territory in northeastern Syria down to central Syria, with footholds in Damascus.
Palmyra’s location in Syria’s heartland offers the militants several important advantages, said Faysal Itani, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council. The town can now be used as a launching pad to threaten government positions and supply lines south of Aleppo and east of Homs and Hama, and open up a new approach to Damascus, seat of Assad’s power.
IS can also threaten regime supply lines to the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, where government forces are still holding out against the militants.
“If IS manages to cut off Deir el-Zour, it is likely that the city would fall, essentially ending regime presence in that province, and consolidating IS’ core territory,” he said.
The fall of Palmyra follows major setbacks for Assad in northern and southern Syria. “This is simply an indication of how overstretched the regime is,” Itani said.
Image credits: AP/Bassem Tellawi