Islamic State has demolished a monastery founded more than 1,500 years ago in central Syria, near a town where the extremists abducted dozens of Christians earlier this month, activists said.
The destruction of the Saint Elian monastery near the town of Qaryatain comes days after Isis militants in Palmyra publicly beheaded an 81-year-old antiquities scholar who had dedicated his life to studying and overseeing the town’s ancient ruins.
The developments have stoked concerns that Isis may be accelerating its campaign to destroy and loot non-Islamic and pre-Islamic heritage sites inside the swaths of Iraq and Syria it controls.
“I think we are worried about almost all the heritage sites in Syria. Nothing is safe,” said Irina Bokova, director general of Unesco.