This is a statement from the Syrian government agency Sana, which announced the discovery of human remains of three people from Palimara 10 km east of Kahlöm near Homs on February 7, 2021, among whom would be the body of archaeologist Khalid al. -Assad

Khalid al-Assad bravely saved valuable goods

Former director of Syrian antiquities from 1963 to 2003, then aged 82, he was placed on the site of Palmyra by the Islamic State (IS) on 18 August 2015. The archaeologist had refused to reveal where the site’s valuables were that the terrorists had come to loot … Khalid al-Assad had actually hidden them in a museum in the city of Tadmor with great courage.

Palmyra Site (Syria), photo of August 16, 2020 © Hasan Belal / Nurpo / Via AFP

Shock wave in the world

The news of the tyrannical death of this eminent archaeologist sent shock waves around the world. For over 50 years, he devoted his life to studying the site of Palmyra in the northwest of Damascus. This brutal crime was carried out, the Islamic State did many precise things in ancient caravan 1^is And 2^I Century listed by UNESCO as World Heritage. The destruction of the Temple of the Bells, especially one week after the temple of Balashmin became active on August 30, 2015, has been condemned by the United Nations as war crimes.

Since the site’s total liberation in 2017, Palmyra was taken over by the Syrian regime, “The UN estimates that more than 10,000 IS militants are active in Syria and Iraq“, According to BBC. DNA analysis is currently underway to confirm the identity of the Syrian archaeologist’s body.