Islamic State releases video from inside ancient Palmyra

The video was released by Islamic State group media arm A3maq Agency on Monday and claims to show the current state of the 2,000-year-old city, which appears to be largely unharmed.

The video, posted on Youtube, is titled: “A video shows the ancient city in Tadmur after the control of the fighters of the Islamic State.”

The footage shows various locations inside the ancient city, considered by Unesco to be one of the most important cultural sites of the ancient world.

The new video comes as Syria’s antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdulkarim, said there was “no damage so far” at the World Heritage site, citing contacts on the ground.

However, he said he was still afraid the Islamic State group would blow up the ancient ruins.

The group has a track record of destroying monuments that do not adhere to their strict view of Sunni Islam, such as the ancient Assyrian city of Nimurud and various ancient Shia mosques and shrines across Iraq.

Inside Palmyra there are monuments it is feared the group will be keen to destroy, such as the 2,000-year-old temple to the Semitic god Bel.

Islamic State fighters swept through Palmyra last week, capturing the city from Bashar al-Assad’s army, including an airbase and the notorious Tadmor prison.

Islamic State accounts have been tweeting pictures purportedly showing weapons captured from the Tadmor airbase: