Beirut - Extremists from the Islamic State group closed in on Syria's ancient metropolis of Palmyra on Friday, hours before seizing a government headquarters in the strategic Iraqi city of Ramadi.
Jihadist fighters advanced to within one kilometre (less than a mile) of Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site featuring Roman colonnades and an impressive necropolis, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"We are very worried," UNESCO director Irina Bokova said Friday at a news conference in Beirut.
"We are following the situation, because this is an ancient Roman site of very high value," she said, renewing her call for "all relevant parties to protect" the famed desert oasis.
Bokova, who spoke in French, highlighted the importance of working "against extremism, against this strategy of eradicating... our collective memory" used by IS, which has already destroyed archaeological treasures in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
The National Coalition, Syria's main opposition group in exile, said IS would be committing "a crime against civilisation" by destroying Palmyra, adding that the regime had not done enough to protect the 2,000-year-old city.
Syria's army sent reinforcements to Palmyra on Friday.
"The army is bombing the surroundings of Tadmor from the air," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Observatory.
Palmyra, which means City of Palms, is known in Syria as Tadmor, or City of Dates.
AFP
