ترميم الأضرار في تدمر يحتاج إلى 5 سنوات

القوات السورية تتخذ من تدمر قاعدة لعملياتها ضد "تنظيم الدولة"

أظهرت صور ومقاطع فيديو نشرها الجيش السوري السبت طائرات مروحية ودبابات تطلق النار على مواقع في تدمر

واصل الجيش السوري، مدعوما بسلاح الجو الروسي، هجومه ضد تنظيم "الدولة الإسلامية" خارج مدينة تدمر.

وقال الجيش إنه يتخذ من تدمر قاعدة لانطلاق عملياته.

وقد وعدت روسيا بإمداد الجيش السوري بتجهيزات لكشف الألغام المزروعة في المدينة، وخبراء للمساعدة في العمليات.

في هذه الأثناء يقوم خبراء آثار بمسح الأضرار التي تسبب بها مسلحو تنظيم "الدولة الإسلامية" للمواقع الأثرية.

وسيزور مدير دائرة الآثار السورية مأمون عبدالكريم المدينة الثلاثاء، وصرح قبل الزيارة أنه متفائل بشأن إمكانية ترميم المواقع بالرغم من الأضرار التي أصابتها وفقدان بعض التماثيل.

وكان الجيش قد استعاد مدينة تدمر الأثرية من عناصر تنظيم "الدولة الإسلامية" الذين سيطروا على المدينة، التي صنفتها منظمة يونسكو تراثا عالميا، في مايو/ أيار 2015.

وقام التنظيم بتدمير مواقع أثرية، بينها معبدان يعودان إلى ألفي سنة، ما أثار قلقا دوليا على كنز التراث العالمي الذي تطلق عليه اليونسكو اسم "لؤلؤة الصحراء".

 

Palmyra is still standing: Ancient city is 80% intact and will only take five years to restore, say experts after Assads troops drove out ISIS Syrian troops play football in the streets of Palmyra after freeing Ancient City from ISIS and discover 80% of historic ruins are intact and will only take five years to restore Government forces worked with Russian military to free ISIS stronghold Huge concerns that the 4,000 year old landscape had been demolished However, almost all has been saved and will take only five years to repair Soldiers celebrated Sundays success with game of football on the streets

 

However, Syrias antiquities chief said the priceless artefacts had survived better than feared - and the whole region could be restored within five years.

We were expecting the worst. But the landscape, in general, is in good shape, Maamoun Abdulkarim told AFP from Damascus.

We could have completely lost Palmyra. The joy I feel is indescribable.

He added: If we have UNESCOs approval, we will need five years to restore the structures damaged or destroyed by IS, Maamoun Abdulkarim told AFP.

We have the qualified staff, the knowledge and the research. With UNESCOs approval, we can start the work in a years time. Eighty percent of the ruins are in good shape.

A Syrian military official says bomb squads are now working on removing mines and bombs planted by the Islamic State group in the historic town.

He confirmed that explosives have been planted across much of Palmyra, including residential areas as well as the historic quarter that is home to some of the middle easts most valuable archaeological relics. 

Syrian troops and pro-government militiamen captured Palmyra Sunday under the cover of Russian airstrikes ending a 10-month control of the town by the extremists.

During its rule of Palmyra, IS killed scores of people and destroyed invaluable artifacts dating back more than 1,800 years, along with a famed Roman triumphal archway.  

Some monuments, including the iconic Temple of Bel, are said to be in pieces almost a year after jihadists seized the site, but much of the ancient city was intact.

Residential neighbourhoods in the adjacent modern town, where 70,000 people lived before the war, were deserted and damage there was widespread, the correspondent said.

Historian of the ancient world Maurice Sartre said: One mustnt forget that only around 15 to 20 per cent of Palmyra had actually been excavated, and so there was an enormous amount yet to discover. 

All the tombs we hadnt excavated and have now been totally pillaged are lost to science forever.

IS had used Palmyras ancient theatre as a venue for public executions and also murdered the citys 82-year-old former antiquities chief.

The Syrian army said the city would now serve as a base to broaden operations against IS, including in its stronghold of Raqa and Deir Ezzor further east.

At least 400 IS fighters were killed in the battle for the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

On the government side, 188 troops and militiamen were killed.

Thats the heaviest losses that IS has sustained in a single battle since its creation in 2013, the director of the Britain-based monitoring group, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP. 

Russian forces, which intervened in support of longtime ally Assad last September, were heavily involved in the Palmyra offensive despite a major drawdown last week.

Russian warplanes carried out 40 combat sorties around Palmyra in the last 24 hours, striking 117 terrorist targets and killing 80 IS fighters, Moscows defence ministry said on Sunday.

Putin telephoned Assad to congratulate the Syrian leader, adding that successes such as the liberation of Palmyra would be impossible without Russias support, a Kremlin spokesman said.

Assad said the victory was fresh proof of the efficiency of the Syrian army and its allies in fighting terrorism.

IS and its jihadist rival, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, are not party to a ceasefire in force across Syria since February 27.

The truce has brought relative quiet to many areas across Syria, where more than 270,000 have been killed and millions had fled their homes in the last five years.

The Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that 363 civilians had been killed since the truce went into effect - the lowest monthly toll in four years.