illicit antiquities trading in economic crisis, organised crime and political violence
When I reported the destruction of Sheikh Mohammed Ali’s tomb, I excluded photos of another site that I had not identified. The second “landmark of polytheism” was the tomb of Nizar Abu Bahaaeddine, which is – or was – by an oasis outside Palmyra.
As a flood of fanboys’ tweets about “shirk” (polytheism) in Palmyra suggest, a structure built by monotheists for a monotheist has been destroyed outside Palmyra. Ceftali notified me that the Islamic State had destroyed Sheikh Mohammed Ali’s tomb, on Tal Mohamed Ali, north of Palmyra.
Following on from reports that the Islamic State had mined the Temple of Bel and the Roman theatre in Palmyra with TNT, which were first reported in Palmyra News Updates, a ‘former resident still in contact with relatives inside’ Palmyra told the Telegraph’s Louisa Loveluck and Magdy Samaan that ‘masked jihadists had announced their intention to rig Palmyra with explosives earlier in the week, delivering the message to residents gathered in the main market square. “We will accelerate pressure on the regime, and push the international community to stop them from shelling civilians.”‘
Further reports are corroborating the Islamic State’s preparations for blowing up – or to be able to blow up – the Temple of Bel, which were first reported in Palmyra News Updates. The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, tod Reuters that the Islamic State ‘also planted some [TNT bombs] around the Roman theater‘.
Assad regime air strikes on Tadmur have continued and intensified and caused many (more) civilian casualties. Meanwhile, a Facebook page for Palmyra News Updates has shared unverified evidence of the Islamic State’s preparation to blow up the Temple of Bel on Sunday or Monday (today or tomorrow).
A propaganda record of the destruction of a mosque in the Aleppo governorate of Syria was in another load of material that I was sent by @oivej at the end of April. Reinforcing the points of yesterday’s post on desecration and demolition of tombs and temples under the Islamic State, this crime does not appear to have been reported more widely than a couple of news sites and tweets (and a range of jihadist media).
@oivej has sent me links to Islamic State propaganda that documents the demolition of a temple in Alalianih (in the province of Damascus), demolition of graves and tombs in a village (in the province of Aleppo) and demolition of seemingly recent, aniconic graves in a cemetery in Tadmur (in the province of Homs), the last of which has been reported by Johnlee Varghese in the International Business Times.
While antiquities trade lobbyist Peter Tompa believes that claims of significant connections between paramilitary violence and antiquities trafficking are ‘hyped‘, ‘dubious’, ‘wild’ ‘propoganda [propaganda]’, he finds the news that Islamic State fighters carried heavy weapons, identification material, communication equipment and a book on ancient coins so unsurprising that he finds it literally ridiculous.
[Original title: Were the antiquities going to Russia from Syria or Iran or France?]
On the 5th of June, it was reported that ‘Isis-looted treasures’ had been ‘seized en route to Russia’, then that an ‘”Isis looted” Syrian Ottoman ceramic bound for Russia’ had been ‘seized in Finland‘. Unfortunately, the speech marks in the second headline were supposed to undermine the first, but sounded like confirmation. More troublingly, every piece of information about the ceramic in both reports appears to have been wrong.
