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| IS 'in control' of Syria's Palmyra | IS 'in control' of Syria's Palmyra |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Islamic State militants in Syria have taken near complete control of the ancient city of Palmyra, activists say. | |
| Government troops have almost entirely withdrawn from the city, an eyewitness told the BBC. | |
| There are fears that the militants will destroy ruins considered among the most important in the Middle East and named by Unesco as a World Heritage site. | |
| IS militants have demolished several ancient sites that pre-date Islam in Iraq, including Hatra and Nimrud. | |
| Activists earlier said IS controlled much of north Tadmur, the town adjoining the ancient site of Palmyra, after overcoming militias loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. | |
| Hundreds of Palmyra's statues have been moved to safety but large monuments from the ancient parts of the city could not be moved. | |
| "This is the entire world's battle," said Syria's head of antiquities Maamoun Abdul Karim. He called on the US-led military coalition against IS to prevent the group destroying the ancient site. | |
| What the loss of Palmyra would mean for the world | |
| Rising out of the desert, Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world, according to Unesco, the UN's cultural agency. | |
| The site, most of which dates back to the 1st and 2nd Century when the region was under Roman rule, is dominated by a grand, colonnaded street. | |
| Unesco's Director-General Irina Bokova said she was "deeply concerned" by the situation. | |
| "The fighting is putting at risk one of the most significant sites in the Middle East, and its civilian population," she said in a statement. | |
| Palmyra and Tadmur are situated in a strategically important area on the road between the capital, Damascus, and the contested eastern city of Deir al-Zour, and close to gas fields. | |
| Taking control of the area would therefore be an important strategic gain for IS, says BBC Arab affairs analyst, Sebastian Usher. | |
| But the world's focus is on the ruins and IS has taken pleasure in devastating and destroying similarly priceless, pre-Islamic archaeological treasures in Iraq, condemning them as idolatrous, he adds. | |
| A US-led coalition has carried out air strikes on the jihadist group's positions since September 2014. However, it says it does not co-ordinate its actions with the Syrian government. |