Topic: Palmyra presents a new twist: First Syrian city the group has taken from Government - page 2. (Read 1658 times)

Right, there is only one God and Mohamed is his messenger. Right?

Of course, not. Just because some radical Muslims WOULD do the job, doesn't mean that they have the right god either. But it puts the Christians to shame, that rather than get rid of the idols, they adore the art. Weakling Christians! God simply used what He found at hand to get the job done.

'Bout time somebody got rid of this false god garbage that has been leading people away from the truth of the real God for way too long.

The sad part is that daesh is now attacking government troops because they have destroyed the FSA and other moderate groups. Next comes the fight between daesh and Al Nusra (Al-Qaeda). Last I checked Nusra was a few kilometers from the center of Damascus.

Since you were so brave that you got in there to ask them, and then out again, what else did they tell you?

Please don't use 'Islamic' there. It is clearly 'non-Islamic'.

^^^Not surprising at all. Brave Islamic Jihadis destroying evil Pagan idols. 

Each of these statues are worth tens of millions of USD. You can tell how much these idiots hate ancient artifacts by noting the fact that they are destroying them, rather than selling them to artifact collectors.

ISIS 'destroys' famous lion god statue in captured Syrian city of Palmyra... just days after promising locals they would not obliterate ancient monuments


1,900-year-old Lion of Al-Lat statue was reportedly one of the first targets



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3101031/ISIS-destroys-famous-lion-god-statue-captured-Syrian-city-just-days-promising-locals-not-obliterate-Palmyra-s-ancient-monuments.html

Right now, they are delaying the destruction of the Palmyra artifacts, as they have received a lot of negative publicity when they did the same in Nimrud. I haven't heard about the incident in Mali, but I remember the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan. What happened in Mali? Is the ISIS active in Mali as well?


The Syrian government under Bashar al Assad have been fighting these monsters for more than four years now. But the Syrian army is no match for the ISIS, which is funded by the Qatari and Saudi oil money.

Extreme Islamic groups have destroyed historic monuments before in Mali and Afghanistan, I don't see any great reason why they would do otherwise in Palmyra.

It is obviously a massive shame that they are so short sighted and can't see past their own beliefs, it seems that local governments don't care enough to stop ISIS either, otherwise they would be moved back in short order.

According to the ISIS, all the human history which dates before the invention of Islam (AD 610) is unislamic, and therefore all the evidences related to it must be destroyed. Also, many of the statues and other artworks go against the ban on idolatory and personal worship in Islam, and therefore must be destroyed without any trace.

I certainly can't answer these. We will have to wait what they say/do. I think their real aim is to gain power rather than destroying non-Islamic cultures. I don't know how many more people will fall in their hands.

Are they going to blow all the ancient heritage? Which is not muslim culture? Heard they have killed 4000 people there. Whta to expect?

[cemter]ISIS Alternates Stick and Carrot to Control Palmyra[/center]


BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hours after they swept into the Syrian city of Palmyra last week, Islamic State militants carried out scores of summary executions, leaving the bodies of victims — including dozens of government soldiers — in the streets.

Then, residents say, they set about acting like municipal functionaries. They fixed the power plant, turned on the water pumps, held meetings with local leaders, opened the city’s lone bakery and started distributing free bread. They planted their flag atop Palmyra’s storied ancient ruins, and did not immediately loot and destroy them, as they have done at other archaeological sites.

Next came dozens of Syrian government airstrikes, some killing civilians. That gave the Islamic State a political assist: Within days, some residents had redirected the immediate focus of their anger and fear from the militants on the ground to the warplanes overhead.

In Palmyra, the Islamic State group appears to be digging into power in a series of steps it has honed over two years of accumulating territory in Iraq and Syria.


Graphic | Syria After Four Years of Mayhem A look at the conflict that has dismembered Syria and inflamed the region with one of the world’s worst religious and sectarian wars.
But Palmyra presents a new twist: It is the first Syrian city the group has taken from the government, not from insurgents. In Raqqa, farther north, and in Iraq, the group has moved quickly and harshly against anyone perceived as a rival.


The Islamic State alternates between terrorizing residents and courting them. It takes over institutions. And it seeks to co-opt opposition to the government, painting itself as the champion of the people — or at least, the Sunnis — against oppressive central authorities.

That method has helped the group entrench itself in the cities of Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq, and is now unfolding in Palmyra.

The Palmyra takeover was detailed by half a dozen residents of the city, including supporters and opponents of the government, via phone or electronic messaging. All asked not to be fully identified, to avoid reprisals from the government or from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. Most cast themselves as caught between the threats of government airstrikes and ISIS beheadings or other killings.

On Wednesday, for example, several residents reported that the Islamic State had killed 20 army soldiers in an ancient amphitheater. Others recalled seeing the bodies of soldiers burned alive or beheaded by militants.

“They slaughtered many,” a cafe owner exclaimed about ISIS, then switched to the subject of air raids that he would later blame for the deaths of several friends: “God knows what they’re bombing, it’s so scary!”

{...}

http://nytimes.com/2015/05/29/world/middleeast/isis-alternates-stick-and-carrot-to-control-palmyra.html