An elderly antiquities scholar in the ancient city of Palmyra has been killed by Islamic State militants, Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim announced Tuesday.
Khaled Asaad, 82, was the head of antiquities in Palmyra for more than 50 years. "Just imagine that such a scholar who gave such memorable services to the place and to history would be beheaded...and his corpse still hanging from one of the ancient columns in the center of a square in Palmyra," Abdulkarim told Reuters. "The continued presence of these criminals in this city is a curse and bad omen on [Palmyra] and every column and every archaeological piece in it."
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