NOVANEWSThe United Nations published satellite images from before and after Sunday explosions in Palmyra city thought to have destroyed the heritage site The United Nations confirmed Monday the destruction of Temple of Bel in Syria – considered one of the most important heritage sites in the world – using satellite images that showed the site before and after Sunday explosions in the city of Palmyra. "We can confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity," the U.N. training and research agency UNITAR said. Meanwhile, the British MI6 puppet 'Syrian Observatory for Human Rights',said late Sunday that fighters from Saudi Zio-Wahhabi had set off boxes and barrels of explosives inside the 2,000-year-old temple, destroying the inner part of the building. The extremist group took over the city in May and have since been targeting the hist-orical and heritage sites. The group had also beheaded Maamoun Abdul-karim, the 82 year-old former antiquities chief in Palmyra. His mutilated body was hung on a columnin a main square of the historic site because he had apparently refused to reveal where valuable artifacts had been moved for safekeeping. Saudi Zio-Wahhabi's considers the historical sites idolatrous, justifying their acts by referring to Islam's Prophet Muhammad actions 1,400 years ago when he destroyed the idols in the city of Mecca. However, unlike the current artifacts and sites, the Mecca idols were in fact being used for worship and the prophet's move was meant as a political statement more than a religious one against the ruling elite in the city. Abdulkarim described the Temple of Bel as Palmyra’s most important site and the most important temple in the Middle East alongside Baalbek in Lebanon. Construction on thetemple began in 32 B.C., and ended in the second century. It later served as both a church and a mosque. Before the Syrian conflict began in 2011, more than 150,000 tourists visited Palmyra every year.
