• Syrians risk lives in battle to protect nation's ancient sites

    Zain Karam / Reuters

    A damaged ceiling is pictured in Bab Antakya district of Aleppo, Syria, on October 2, 2012. Aleppo's Old City is one of several World Heritage Sites in Syria that are considered at risk.

    By Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

    Editor's note: This story includes a correction.

    Updated at 9:15 a.m. ET: Even as civil war tears the nation apart, it seems Syrians can agree about one thing: The need to protect the country’s antiquities and World Heritage Sites that represent thousands of years of human history.

    Rebel fighters and ordinary citizens are risking their lives to document the damage being done to Syria’s ancient treasures and museums, according to Western monitors.


    Now Bashar Assad's regime has joined in. Maamoun Abdul-Karim, director general of antiquities and museums, has launched a campaign, called "MySyria," (in Arabic) asking communities to help protect the nation’s cultural heritage from the civil strife.

    All six World Heritage Sites have now suffered damage as the conflict widens, according to Emma Cunliffe, a volunteer monitor for the non-profit Global Heritage Fund.

    One of oldest cities
    Destruction includes heavy looting of temples and tombs in the trade city of Palmyra and a devastating fire in the medieval souk in Aleppo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in human history.

    World heritage body UNESCO has led the outpouring of international concern. Aleppo dates back to the 10th century B.C. and the present city is deemed to have "Outstanding Universal Value," by UNESCO.

    Reuters, file

    Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar Assad in the ancient city of Palmyra on November 18, 2011.

    "Pictures and video evidence gathered by people on the ground shows the extent of the damage and prove that none of these sites are now safe from the conflict," said Cunliffe, a postgraduate student at Britain's Durham University.

    'Emergency red list' targets Syria's looted treasures

    Looting, which led to the theft of many of Iraq's national treasures during the conflict that deposed Saddam Hussein, is also a risk in Syria.

    "Large gangs of men turned up at Iraqi sites, totally overwhelming the protection, and looted on a vast scale. If that starts to happen in Syria there will be problems because there's little that can be done about it,” Cunliffe said.

    More Syria coverage from NBC News

    She said each side in the conflict blamed the other for damage to ancient buildings, but it was not easy to verify the claims.

    Cunliffe said many people in Syria made films showing the damage being done to ancient sites.

    She said that one man “who uploaded most of the videos of the damage to the citadel of Qal'at al-Madiq in January to April stopped uploading when the government took the citadel/village in April. I have assumed the worst.”

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    Osman Orsal / Reuters

    A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

    Launch slideshow

    New 'intelligence' body set to fight illicit trade in world's priceless treasures

    Abdul-Karim hopes to encourage Syrians to prevent the war from causing permanent damage.

    “The war in Syria has hit ... all aspects of life, including antiquities considered the common heritage of all Syrians, regardless of their thoughts or political alliances, whether loyalists or opposition,” Abdul-Karim told news website Al Akhbar following the campaign's launch.

    He said there was also evidence of antiquities being smuggled out of the country.

    'A loss to human civilization'
    Dan Thompson, director of global projects at the Global Heritage Fund, said that there was little that could be done until the fighting stopped.

    A Cluster Bomb reportedly dropped by Syrian government warplanes has killed up to 10 children as they played in a village on the outskirts of Damascus. Warning: There are distressing images. ITV's Bill Neely reports.

    “The continuing damage and destruction of World Heritage Sites and other national antiquities in Syria during the present conflict is not only a loss to human civilization, but also greatly reduces the socio-economic potential these sites offer to local communities and the country as a whole,” he said in a statement.

    "At present, unfortunately, the most anyone can do is to closely monitor and publicize the devastation … and plead for both sides to respect the country’s cultural heritage, as UNESCO has done."

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

     

  • Ancient Syrian market being consumed in fire started by fighting

    As Rebels in Syria have launched a massive attack on the country's largest city, Aleppo, which is 40 miles from the Turkish border, calling it a decisive battle. Fighting raged in the treasured marketplace and a World Heritage site from the 14 century was burned to ashes. NBC's Ann Curry reports.

    By NBC News and wire services

    Hundreds of shops in the ancient covered market in Aleppo, Syria, were burning Saturday as fighting between rebels and state forces in Syria's largest city threatened to destroy the U.N. World Heritage Site. 

    Activists speaking via Skype said army snipers were making it difficult to approach the Souk al-Madina, the medieval market of vaulted stone alleyways and carved wooden facades in the Old City, once a major tourist attraction, Reuters reported.

    Activists said the fire might have been started by shelling and gunfire, and estimated that between 700 and 1,000 shops had been destroyed so far. The accounts were difficult to verify because of government restrictions on foreign media.

    Shaam News Network via AP

    In this image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a fire rages at the medieval market in Aleppo, Syria.


    Aleppo's Old City is one of several locations in Syria declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency.

    UNESCO believes five of Syria's six World Heritage  Sites -- which include the ancient desert city of Palmyra, the Crac des Chevaliers crusader fortress, and parts of old Damascus -- have been affected by the fighting.

    The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian forces and rebels blamed each other for the blaze.

    The uprising-turned-civil war has killed more than 30,000 people, according to activist groups. 

    Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday announced a new offensive in Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub of 2.5 million people, but neither side has appeared to make significant gains. 

    The Syrian conflict grinds on. Cities are under attack leaving them crushed by heavy shelling. NBC's Bill Neely reports.

    Text messages attributed to the army were sent to all Syrian mobile phones when the offensive was announced.

    "To those who have implicated themselves against the state: Those who have offered you money have left you with two options: You will be killed fighting the state or it will kill you to get rid of you," one message read. "The state is more merciful than you. Think and decide. The Syrian Army." 

    Activists also reported heavy clashes at Bab Antakya, a stone gateway to Aleppo's Old City, which sits on ancient trade routes and survived a parade of rulers throughout its construction between the 12th and 17th centuries. 

    "No one is actually making gains here, it is just fighting and more fighting, and terrified people are fleeing," said an activist contacted by telephone who declined to be identified. 

    He said in some districts bodies were lying in the streets and residents would not collect them, fearing snipers.

    By noon on Saturday, more than 40 people had been killed in fighting across Syria, according to the Observatory.

    Syria's military deadlock is also reflected diplomatically, with foreign powers stalemated over how to act. Western states and Gulf Arab countries back the opposition but most seem reluctant to interfere, while Russia, China and Iran back Assad.

    The revolt, which began in March 2011 as peaceful protests, has become an armed insurgency, with rebels holding ground in Aleppo and rural towns of northern Syria.

    The fighting has crept closer to Syria's border zones, and some bullets and rockets have hit neighboring Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey. Ankara warned it would take action if its territory was again hit -- a mortar bomb hit a town on its southeastern frontier on Friday.

    Activists reported fresh clashes in the capital Damascus and its suburbs and said security forces were torching homes as helicopters buzzed overhead. 

    The bloodied bodies of at least 12 men were found in Damascus's northwestern suburb of Qudsaya. A video published by showed rows of men, some of them apparently shot, laid in a room whose walls were spattered with blood.

    Some Damascus residents have accused government forces of summary executions in rebel districts.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

    Assad has long defended the fierce crackdown, arguing that he has been fighting Islamist militants funded from abroad.

     

  • Al-Qaida linked fighters destroy 'end of the world' gate in Timbuktu

    AFP - Getty Images

    A still from a video shows Islamist militants destroying an ancient shrine in Timbuktu on Sunday. The hardline Islamists who seized control of Timbuktu along with the rest of northern Mali three months ago, consider the shrines to be idolatrous.

    By F. Brinley Bruton and news services

    World cultural body UNESCO was set to create a special fund to protect Mali's heritage on Tuesday after al-Qaida-linked Islamists attacked historic and religious landmarks in the city of Timbuktu for a third day, breaking down the door to a 15th century mosque that -- according to legend -- had to remain shut until the end of the world.

    A UNESCO committee also called for a mission to go to Mali to work with local and national leaders to stop what it called "wanton destruction."

    "In legend, it is said that the main gate of Sidi Yahya mosque will not be opened until the last day (of the world)," Alpha Abdoulahi, the town imam, told Reuters by telephone. 

    Yet Islamists intent on erasing traces of what some regard as un-Islamic idolatry smashed down the door to the mosque early on Monday, saying they wanted to "destroy the mystery" of the ancient entrance, he said. 

    "They offered me 50,000 CFA ($100) for repairs but I refused to take the money, saying that what they did is irreparable," Abdoulahi added.

    In a statement emailed to msnbc.com Tuesday, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee called for a series of measures to help save Mali's ancient sites and condemned the "repugnant" destruction of Timbuktu's mausoleums.

    UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has appealed for a halt to the attacks. 

    AFP - Getty Images

    A still from a video shows an Islamist militant celebrating and shouting after destroying an ancient shrine in Timbuktu on Sunday.

    "There are mausoleums, there are mosques, there are manuscripts which represent enormous value for humanity and it is totally unacceptable what is happening there," Bokova said on Monday. 

    The U.N. body seeks to protect places around the world it classifies as world heritage sites, arguing they are of special cultural significance and should be preserved for posterity. 

    Government powerless
    Mali's government in the capital Bamako about 630 miles south has condemned the destruction, but is powerless to halt them after its army was routed by rebels in April. It is still struggling to bolster a return to civilian rule after a March 22 coup that emboldened the rebel uprising further north. 

    Witnesses: Islamists destroy ancient sites in Timbuktu

    The attacks have been widely condemned inside Mali as well. 

    "The 333 saints would be turning in their graves," the country's Les Echos newspaper wrote on Monday, referring to 333 revered Sufi imams, sheiks and scholars buried in Timbuktu. 

    In the first installment of Rock Center's Hidden Planet series, Richard Engel travels to Mali, on the edge of the Sahara desert, to discover the city of Timbuktu.

    "Today there are old women, old people in Timbuktu who say that maybe it is the end of the world," entrepreneur and former Timbuktu resident Male Dioum told Reuters.

    Islamists of the Ansar Dine group say the centuries-old shrines of the local Sufi version of Islam in Timbuktu are idolatrous. They have so far destroyed at least eight of 16 listed mausoleums in the city, together with a number of tombs. 

    Ansar Dine and well-armed allies, including al-Qaida splinter group MUJWA, have hijacked a separatist uprising by local Tuareg MNLA rebels and now control two-thirds of Mali's desert north, territory that includes the regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. 

    Romaric Ollo Hien / AFP - Getty Images, file

    Islamists rebels approach Timbuktu in rebel-held northern Mali in April. "Members of AQIM, supported by (the armed Islamist group) Ansar Dine, have destroyed the tomb of Saint Sidi (Mahmoud Ben) Amar. They set fire to the tomb," an official told AFP in on May 5 on condition of anonymity. "They promised to destroy other tombs, Timbuktu is in shock. Now they want to take and control other tombs and manuscripts," the official said.

    The size of the area under their control is bigger than France, heightening fears that Mali will become a jihadist haven. 

    The MNLA rebels criticized the Islamists' destruction of holy sites, underlining a growing rift between the two groups that had formed an uneasy alliance to take over the north of the country. 

    "The perpetrators of these heinous acts, their sponsors, and those who support them must be made accountable," MNLA spokesman Hama Ag Mahmoud told Reuters in an interview in Nouakchott. 

    Desert tourism
    Sufi shrines have been attacked by hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya in the past year. The attacks also recall the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. 

    According to Time magazine, those who adhere to a more orthodox brand of Islam tend to harbor a particular animosity to Sufism, who have a more mystical interpretation of the divine and a faith that is often rooted in pre-Islamic traditions and a reverence for saints and dead wise men.

    Located on an old Saharan trading route that saw salt from the Arab north exchanged for gold and slaves from black Africa to the south, Timbuktu blossomed in the 16th century as an Islamic seat of learning, home to priests, scribes and jurists. 

    In recent years, Mali had sought to create a desert tourism industry around Timbuktu. But even before April's rebellion many tourists were being discouraged by a spate of kidnappings of Westerners in the region claimed by al-Qaida-linked groups. 

    F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report. 

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow World News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook


  • Abed Al Hashlamoun / EPA

    UNESCO grants heritage status to Bethlehem

    A Greek Orthodox sweeps in the Church of the Nativity in the biblical West Bank city of Bethlehem on June 28, 2012. UNESCO voted to grant world heritage status to the Church of the Nativity. The declaration by UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization covers the West Bank church, venerated by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, and the surrounding route taken by religious pilgrims.

    Read more here

  • Witnesses: Islamists destroy ancient sites in Timbuktu

    Romaric Ollo Hien / AFP - Getty Images

    Islamists rebels of Ansar Dine, seen on April 24, 2012 near Timbuktu, Mali, have destroyed the tomb of Saint Sidi Mahmoud.

    By Reuters

    DAKAR -- Armed fighters of Mali's al-Qaida-linked Ansar Dine Islamist group on Saturday destroyed mausoleums in the ancient trading city of Timbuktu, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, witnesses said. 

    The attack came just four days after UNESCO agreed to a request by the West African state to place Timbuktu on its list of heritage sites in danger following the seizure of its northern two-thirds in April by separatist and Islamist rebels. 

    "They have already completely destroyed the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud (Ben Amar) and two others. They said they would continue all day and destroy all 16," local Malian journalist Yeya Tandina said by telephone of the 16 most prized resting grounds of local saints in the town. 

     "They are armed and have surrounded the sites with pick-up trucks. The population is just looking on helplessly," he said, adding that the Islamists were currently taking pick-axes to the mausoleum of Sidi El Mokhtar, another cherished local saint. 

     "It looks as if it is a direct reaction to the UNESCO decision," Timbuktu deputy Sandy Haidara said by telephone, confirming the attacks. 

     UN: Ancient treasures of Timbuktu under threat in Mali unrest

    Since government forces were routed in April, Ansar Dine and other Islamist groups with links to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have gained the upper hand over less well-armed Tuaregs whose goal is a secular, independent northern state. 

    Ansar Dine is pushing for strict sharia, Islamic law, across the whole of the country and deems un-Islamic the shrines of Timbuktu, an expression of the local Sufi brand of the religion. 

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow World News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook


     

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.