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Updated 8am
THE MOST FAMED temple in Syria’s Palmyra has been blown up, the United Nations has confirmed, showing satellite images of the damage as the Islamic State group presses a campaign to tear down the treasured heritage site.
A powerful blast in the ancient city had raised fears the militant jihadists had escalated their push to rid Syria of what they view as un-Islamic artifacts after they destroyed the smaller Baal Shamin temple last week.
“We can confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity,” the UN training and research agency UNITAR said, providing satellite images from before and after the explosion on Sunday.
The 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel was the centrepiece of Palmyra’s famed ruins and one of the most important relics of the heritage site, which has been described by the UN’s cultural arm UNESCO as of “outstanding universal value”.
IS fighters seized the city from Syrian regime forces in May and have since attacked the city’s ruins and historic sites, which they consider idolatrous, and in mid-August beheaded the 82-year-old former antiquities chief in Palmyra.
The Sunni Muslim group has also been accused of destroying heritage sites to loot items to sell on the black market and to gain publicity for their campaign to bring vast swathes of Iraq and Syria under their own harsh interpretation of Islam.
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Where would the hacks be if there was no twitter?
I live facing the bridge, lots of helicopters etc al recording it and huge area shit down, blast lasted a second as they where stunt flames, people just being dramatic as usual
Fuking stop with this clickbait shite
Another attention seeking headline
Paul, could you not have realised that it was a movie stunt from the * in the headline? Seriously,I mean it was practically spoon-fed to us….
Oh, ok, the Brazil team were all, killed in a plane crash*
* means it’s not true
“The Foreigner” An action packed film starring Nigel Farage blowing up buses full of Syrian refugees.
Sap!
The victims and the victims families of the 7/7 bombing must be disgusted with this stunt.
Quite a sick stunt to terrorise the men, women, children and oaps of London
and try to accustom them to being under attack by the terrorists that their (bought and paid for) government radicalise and invite in from behind the safety of the bulletproof glass installed in their ivory towers.
Sad
So Sad.
Video games have taken to the streets.
Soon no one will know (or care about) the difference between a real terrorist attack and a fake one.
How desensitised people have become.
This whole thing has been blown out of all proportion!
The outrage bus has exploded.
I am surprised that they had to use the real Lambeth Bridge in this day and age.
Surely this could have been done in a film studio with the assistance of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery).
That bus exploding would certainly have looked like a real terrorist attack to a casual unsuspecting observer.
P.S.
Are the film company going to compensate the disrupted commuters?
Pigs might fly.
God some people just look for a way to be offended!!
have your say