Syrian Army Attacks Palmyra (Multiple Updates)

Reported by Agence France-Presse. Translated by Now Lebanon. Only now making its way into the world news*

Wednesday, March 7, 2012 | 18:16 Beirut

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Syria's ancient desert city of Palmyra besieged

February 19, 2012

The Syrian army has been laying siege to the ancient city of Palmyra, a world heritage site, since early February and shooting at anything that moves from a historic citadel, residents say.

"Palmyra is surrounded by the army from all fronts: the Arab citadel, the olive and palm tree groves, the desert, the city," one resident told AFP by telephone, adding that the operation began on February 4.

Security forces have set up camp in the citadel which overlooks the Roman ruins and the city of some 60,000 people, said the resident who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

"Machinegun fire rains down from the citadel at anything that moves in the ruins because they think it is rebels," he added.

Palmyra's pristine Roman ruins set off by dramatic desert sunrises and sunsets have earned it the status of a UNESCO protected world heritage site.

Residents report the army has set up camp in this historic citadel that overlooks the city

It was a key tourist attraction in Syria before unrest against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad erupted 11 months ago. Human rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed in the country since mid-March last year.

Other Palmyra residents told AFP said that hundreds of people have fled the city for safety after reports emerged that several local figures have been killed by regime forces.

Adnan al-Kabir, whose family owns the Al-Waha (Oasis) Hotel in the heart of the city, was among three civilians killed by the army, three different sources told AFP.

A YouTube video shows Kabir with a wound to the head apparently caused by gunfire. Friends who knew him identified Kabir in interviews with AFP.

"The majority of the young men have left or are trying to leave, fearing detention. Only elders and state employees stayed behind," said another resident who managed to sneak out of Palmyra.

Women and girls have been spirited off to safer locations for fear they would be raped by "soldiers who hold nothing sacred," he said, speaking from a neighbouring country.

Although communications with Palmyra were severed at the start of the campaign, those residents who have managed to get out spoke of daily machinegun and tank fire.

Hundreds of people have fled from the desert city that carved its place in the history books as a caravan stop on the ancient Silk Road and as the home of legendary Queen Zenobia who defied Rome in the third century AD.

"People related and unrelated to rebels are fleeing because security forces are detaining people at random," said one resident who fled to neighbouring Jordan.

He said he saw tanks and checkpoints all around the city.

Security forces have also set up checkpoints within Palmyra itself, stopping traffic at gunpoint, checking cars and detaining men between the age of 20 and 40, said another resident who escaped from the city.

"Many people have disappeared, we don't know if they are dead or detained," said the 31-year-old who was able to get out after five days of siege.

Tanks were also deployed near the Roman ruins at the entrance to Palmyra - a desert city known as Tadmur in Arabic.

According to residents, regime forces have destroyed and set ablaze several olive, palm and date groves using tank and machinegun fire.

"All our resources are concentrated in the gardens: our olives, our dates," said one resident who fled after security forces stormed and destroyed his garden.

"The gardens near the ruins were hit the hardest. People will have to plant again and wait for 10 years before they see a good season again," another man said.

Anti-regime activists, mostly loosely organised local youths, had been using the gardens as a meeting point, residents said.

Until this month Palmyra had been spared the deadly violence in the Assad regime's crackdown on dissent, according to activists.

"There was an unspoken understanding between authorities and residents that security forces would stay out of Palmyra if the city behaved," one resident said.

Residents say Palmyra's fate was decided after a Sunni general in charge of security in the region was replaced by an Alawite from Assad's community.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon

For live updates on the Syrian uprising, follow @NOW_Syria on Twitter or click here.

* Reported 5 March on the Global Heritage Fund blog (my thanks to Chuck Jones for bringing this dire news to my attention via Facebook).  Photo of citadel credit: Barbara Boranga via Global Heritage Fund. 

Updated 19 April 2012 

According to reports collected by 14 April, the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palmyra is threatened by:

1. The continuous movement of troops on and around the site ("le danger majeur que court le patrimoine mobilier ou immobilier de la cité caravanière de Palmyre, où d’incessants mouvements de troupes ont lieu selon les sources locales.")

2.  Tanks and heavy armour dug in near the funeral towers and troop barracks constructed near the Justinian's Walls.  ("La ville antique de Palmyre, dans les ruines antiques, notamment à proximité des tours funéraires de la nécropole, où des chars et de l'armement lourd ont été positionnés et des casernes construites, notamment près de la grande muraille.")

3.  Tanks and heavy armour deployed on the citadel ("Installation de chars et d'armes lourdes par l'armée syrienne dans des citadelles (position dominante), au fur et à mesure du déploiement des forces de répression.")

For which reasons, Palmyra is now listed as one of the Syrian sites facing serious damage and possible destruction of its monuments. 

Updated 29 May 2012

New Report on Damage to Syria’s Cultural Heritage

GHN member and Durham University PhD student Emma Cunliffe has prepared a comprehensive summary of the known damage to cultural heritage sites in Syria. Entitled Damage to the Soul:  Syria’s Cultural Heritage in Conflict, the report draws from a number of sources to present a picture of the destruction – from looting to shelling – that is afflicting cultural heritage sites as a result of the ongoing conflict in the country.

Extracted from this report:

According to an interview with Hiba al-Sakhel, Director of Museums in Syria (as reported by PAS84), the areas looted and damaged at Palmyra are: 

The Camp of Diocletian

The Valley of the tombs and the tombs of the Southwest and Southeast (passage-graves or underground tombs)

Triumphal arch and decumanus at colonnades

The areas of the defensive walls South and North

The edge of the temple of Bel

It has been suggested that at Palmyra government troops were involved, or at least complicit, as from their base in the ruins, any looting would theoretically have been visible to them, although this cannot be verified. 

Updated 4 August 2012

Soldier’s video reignites fears of looting at World Heritage Site

 

According to France 24 International News,this video was uploaded by Abdellah al-Tadmoury, the director of the opposition’s communications centre in Palmyra. Abroad.

Al-Tadmoury told us that, last week, a soldier deserting from the army gave him his phone’s memory card just before leaving town with some rebels from the Free Syrian Army. The man, he said, barely had the time to specify that his memory card contained images from his brigade in Palmyra. FRANCE 24 was given several of these videos. On one of these, a brigade from the regular army is shown patrolling the Palmyra archaeological site. Another video features the same group of armed soldiers breaking into a house. And then there was this video, where uniformed men manhandle what appear to be rare archaeological artefacts.

After analysing these images, a FRANCE 24 journalist from Syria concluded that these men are probably soldiers from the regular Syrian army, as they repeatedly use the term of respect “Sidi.” This is used in the Syrian army to address one’s superiors. In contrast, in the Free Syrian Army, the combatants call each other “brother” or “comrade.”

See the full report on France24 in English,  French, or Arabic.
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