IS enters Syria's Palmyra, threatening ancient site

Damascus

 Islamic State group fighters recaptured the north of Syria's historic city of Palmyra yesterday in another setback to efforts to repel the advancing jihadists after the fall of Iraq's Ramadi.

 Palmyra's UNESCO-listed heritage site, including ancient temples and colonnaded streets, and its adjacent museum housing priceless artefacts, are in the city's southwest.

 "The situation is very bad," said Syria's antiquities chief, Mamoun Abdulkarim.

 "If only five members of IS go into the ancient buildings, they'll destroy everything," he added, calling for international action to save the city.

 The head of the UN cultural agency, Irina Bokova, demanded an immediate halt to fighting in Palmyra, which was "putting at risk one of the most significant sites in the Middle East".

 Hundreds of statues and artefacts from Palmyra's museum have already been transferred out of the city, according to Abdulkarim, but many others -- including massive tombs -- could not be moved.

 It was the second time IS has overrun northern Palmyra, after it seized the same neighbourhoods on Saturday but held them for less than 24 hours.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS had seized roughly "a third" of Palmyra.

After fierce clashes on the city's edges, the jihadists entered the northern quarter on foot and seized a state security building before fanning out as regime forces fled.