One of Syria’s leading antiquities archaeologists, Khaled Assad, was beheaded by ISIS terrorists, who then hung his lifeless body for display from a Roman column in Palmyra’s town square.
Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s antiquities chief, said ISIS members had taken Asaad a month ago and interrogated him to discern the location of the town’s treasures. Assad, fearful the terrorists would destroy the objects,which had been hidden by various government officials refused to tell, however, Fox News reported.
“Just imagine that such a scholar who gave such memorable services to the place and to history would be beheaded … and his corpse still hanging from one of the ancient columns in the center of a square in Palmyra,” Abdulkarim said, Fox News reported. “The continued presence of these criminals in this city is a curse and bad omen on [Palmyra] and every column and every archaeological piece in it.”
Assad was only one of several government officials who worked to hide the local historic objects from ISIS in recent weeks.
Assad worked for 50 years at the UNESCO World Heritage site and Addulkarim characterized him as “one of the most important pioneers in Syrian archaeology in the 20th century,” FOx News said.
And Khalil Hariri from Palmyra’s archaeological department bewailed his death to the Associated Press, asking simply: “Why did they kill him?”
He went on: “Al-Assad was a treasure for Syria and the world. … Their systematic campaign [ISIS] seeks to take us back into pre-history. But they will not succeed.”
