ISIL kills 400 civilians in central Palmyra: Syria TV

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists have massacred 400 civilians, mostly women and children, during their onslaught on the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, Syrian state TV reports.

The television reported Sunday's carnage by foreign-backed terror elements, quoting residents inside the historic city, which is home to renowned Roman-era ruins including well-preserved temples, colonnades and a theater.

The killing spree came after ISIL militants accused the victims of cooperating with the Syrian government and refusing to follow the orders of the Takfiri group. 

Meanwhile, opposition activists said on social media outlets that hundreds of bodies were laying in the streets across the city after it was seized by the terrorist group on Wednesday. 

No further details have been reported on the ISIL atrocities following the Takfiri militants' takeover of the city amid reports that they have locked down the museum next to the ancient ruins of Palmyra.

Earlier reports said the terrorists had stationed armed guards outside the Palmyra museum after destroying a number of modern plaster statues and raising their flag on the ancient castle overlooking the city’s world heritage site.

Syria’s Antiquities Director Mamoun Abdulkarim said on Saturday that most of the museum’s statues and artifacts have been transferred from the city, "but there are still the large items, like the sarcophagi, which weigh three or four tones and we could not move."

The Takfiri militants have a history of destroying historical sites. In April, the terrorists released a video showing ISIL members destroying artifacts at Iraq’s ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud before blowing up a part of the site. In February, the terrorists smashed ancient statues at the Ninawa museum in Mosul, using sledgehammers and drills.

The Takfiri terrorists have also razed to the ground a number of mosques in Syria and Iraq, many of them dating back to the early years of the Islamic civilization. The terrorists have also destroyed tombs belonging to revered Shia and Sunni figures.

Meanwhile, the UN cultural agency has warned that ISIL’s demolition of the world heritage site would be an "enormous loss to humanity."

"Palmyra is an extraordinary World Heritage site in the desert and any destruction to Palmyra [would be] not just a war crime but ... an enormous loss to humanity," said UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova on Thursday.

MFB/KA/SS

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