(MENAFN- The Peninsula) A blast rocked the ancient ruins in Syria's Palmyra on Sunday but the site's famed Temple of Bel appeared to be largely intact, Syria's antiquities chief said.
Maamoun Abdulkarim confirmed reports of an explosion at the Unesco World Heritage-listed site, but said Palmyra's most important temple did not appear to have sustained major damage.
"The frontal columns and the cella (interior) of the temple do not appear to have been damaged," Abdulkarim said yesterday.
"According to the information we received from the town, the temple is still standing, but antiquities staff are not able to enter the site to see close up," he said.
On Sunday night, a monitor and activists said the temple had been partially destroyed by Islamic State (IS) group militants who detonated explosives inside the famed site.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said that IS fighters had set off explosives inside the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel, at least partially destroying the centrepiece of Palmyra's famed ruins.
Mohammad Hassan Al Homsi, an activist from Palmyra, said the inner part of the temple was destroyed in the blast.
They detonated "boxes and barrels" that were filled with explosives and put in place on Sunday, he said.
The reports came a week after the jihadist group blew up the smaller Baal Shamin temple at the Greco-Roman site.
That destruction was confirmed by photos published by the group and satellite images of Palmyra taken by the United Nations. IS seized Palmyra from Syria's regime on May 21, and shortly after was reported to have mined its ancient sites.
The group has also beheaded the 82-year-old former antiquities chief in Palmyra and destroyed a famed statue outside its museum.
The extremist group considers statues and grave markers to be idolatrous, but it has also been accused of destroying heritage sites to loot items for the black market and to gain publicity.
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