Elderly antiquities scholar killed by ISIS in ancient city of Palmyra

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."

Abdulkarim said Asaad had been detained and interrogated by militants for more than a month before he was killed Tuesday. Palmyra, which is home to 2,000-year-old ruins including Roman tombs and the Temple of Bel, was captured by ISIS from government forces in May. Asaad had worked with U.S., French, German, and Swiss archaeological missions to conduct research and excavations, and wrote several scholarly articles for international journals.

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