Middle East Journal | Syria | Sep 2024
Iconoclastic Insurgents
In the middle of the Syrian desert sits Palmyra, an ancient city and UNESCO heritage site built along the silk road in the third millennium B.C. that has seen many ancient civilizations come and go, including Romans, Arameans, Persians and Greeks. Being on the Silk Road, Palmyra saw traders come from both Europe and the Far East, and it is reflected in the ruins of buildings and temples which once stood, with noticeable Greek and Roman architecture and stonework. The temple of Baal was the most famous of these ruins, built in 32 A.D. to worship the Mesopotamian god Bel, and was built with both Graeco-Roman and Eastern architectural styles, similar to the ruins in Baalbek, Lebanon, which also got its name from the god. The temple can be found in various ancient records such as the Hebrew Bible and various Assyrian text. Before the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Palmyra was a popular tourist spot, often named the ‘pearl of Syria’s desert’, with over 150,000 tourists visiting in 2010. The city itself benefited greatly from the tourism industry, with hotels and restaurants all over the city. Before the start of the conflict the population was around 70,000, today it is estimated to be less than 15,000.
On the 13th of May, The Islamic State (ISIS) started their Palmyra offensive, and within a week, the group was occupying the ancient city. Fearing their Iconoclastic nature, a number of ancient artifacts were transported to Damascus for safekeeping. Within a month of the occupation, the Syrian Air Force started a series of air strikes, which in turn damaged parts of the ruins as well as the modern city. Under ISIS, Palmyra saw unprecedented damage, the group were set on finding valuable treasures within the archaeological site, and in doing so tortured and later executed 82-year-old archaeologist and antiquities chief Khaled al-Assad after he refused to give any information. Many artifacts they looted from museums and excavations were sold for profit and later found on international markets in Europe and North America. Palmyra’s amphitheatre was used for public executions of prisoners and opponents, with ISIS releasing many videos of the killings in front of a crowd.
In August of 2015, ISIS destroyed the Temple of Baal by blowing it up. The official narrative from the group, published in their magazine ‘The Dabiq’ stated that they see ancient heritage as a challenge to the loyalty of the Iraqi and Syrian people to ISIS. The group’s draconian and often warped interpretation of Sunni Islam sees other religions, and even different sects of Islam, as intolerable. Due to the polytheist nature of the site, which would label it as a ‘pagan temple’, ISIS not only destroyed the buildings but destroyed many artifacts in the Palmyra Museum, smashing the faces of countless roman and ancient statues. The selling of other artifacts suspectedly brought tens of millions of dollars to the group from the international market, with many pieces ending up in private collections. The shock value of the destruction is also of thought to be a provocative act, to increase the intervention from both the Syrian Government and foreign powers. In September that year, on request of Bashar al-Assad’s government, the Russian Military started an air strike campaign against the group. The first occupation of ISIS ended after fierce fighting with the Syrian Army, assisted by the Russians on the 27th of March 2016 which caused significant damage to the modern part of the city.
Mohammad lived through the first occupation of ISIS, staying with his family throughout. He runs a small restaurant in Tadmor, the modern part of Palmyra and tells me how life was during the short but brutal time under the group. He recalls in the first couple of days having to dispose of all the alcohol in his restaurant, clearing all the beers out of the fridges and pouring them away before smashing the glass in a bin bag. If he were to be found with alcohol, the punishment could range from public lashes to execution. Even to this day with his restaurant selling alcohol again, the fridge still bears the marks where he had to remove the ‘Tuborg’ beer branding from it. In the early days his wife and daughter remained upstairs of the restaurant, not leaving under any circumstance as they would need to have covered up completely in a niqab, whereas before his wife only wore a loose hijab. The fighters would patrol the streets, checking everybody was adhering to their rules, even tobacco was banned I was told, and any confiscated shisha or cigarettes would be burned publicly. Mohammed continued operating his restaurant as usually as he could, he would frequently get ISIS fighters coming in for food, sometimes they would pay, sometimes they wouldn’t, but the most frightening aspect of the interactions would be the constant questioning. They would ask about everything, from personal details about himself and his family, to political and religious questions, almost like being interrogated. Mohammad explains that he kept his answers short and tried to say what they wanted to hear, as a slip up or anything that could be interpreted against the group could be fatal. When the airstrikes started, it almost seemed like hope, although they could be killed it meant they were not alone in the desert.
The group was able to gain power and land due to the sheer amount of money they had. ISIS had come from Iraq, stealing hordes of Iraqi military hardware such as tanks, and made there way west across Syria taking control of various oil fields and refineries. Selling the oil was a major source of income which gave the group the traction they needed to occupy a third of Syria at their peak. One of Mohammad’s friends from the neighbourhood worked on an oil field a couple hundred kilometres east of Palmyra and was on site when the Islamic State arrived. The first thing they did was root out anybody closely associated to the Syrian Government and armed personnel, they were taken away almost immediately and either used as hostages or executed, leaving themselves to run the site. To give me an example of how they run the oil fields, Mohammed explains, if his friend earned $100 a month working under the government, working under ISIS he would now earn $1000 a month, this is what they used to keep people from fleeing. The oil revenue brought the group so much money they could afford to reward anybody willing to work with them generously. For some, the pay wasn’t a good enough reason to work under their draconian rule however, one man on the site supposedly texted his wife back in Damascus that he hated working under ISIS and that he wanted to find a way to leave to come back to the city. Upon finding that text message, the group executed him in front of the other workers. Phone and living quarter checks were frequent and all on the site were forced to adhere to their interpretation of Islam. Mohammad's friend eventually got out of the oil field and was able to return to Damascus, his means of escape he would not say.
Towards the end of the first occupation, the violence increased as Syrian Government forces gained ground on Palmyra, with gunshots and mortar fire battering the city, destroying many civilian buildings. Gunfighting in the neighbourhoods as the Army tried to rid the city of the group went on for days, and Mohammad and his family took cover in their home, living of what water and food they had collected. By the 27th of March, Government forces along with the Russians had recaptured the city and pushed ISIS back east into the desert. Russian demining operations began shortly after as the group littered the ground with them on their retreat. As with many once the city had been liberated, Mohammad and his family decided to leave Palmyra, heading towards Damascus to stay with family, he recalls along the road out of the city the desert each side was littered with destroyed cars, trucks and tanks, most of which was ISIS hardware that had been stolen from Iraq, and roadblocks and security checks lined the road every few kilometres or so. Whilst living in Damascus, that December ISIS launched a second offensive into Palmyra, reoccupying the city again. This time, more damage was done to the ancient city, with the famous amphitheatre and Baalshamin Temple suffering significant damage. This renewed the fight between the group and the Syrian Government with the Russians, and along with multiple airstrikes and more violence, the city and surrounding area was fully liberated in March 2017. It has remained under government control ever since.
Destruction in Palmyra.
On return to Palmyra in late 2017, Mohammad told of how heartbroken he was to see the state his city was in, some neighbourhoods destroyed, with virtually no buildings left untouched from the fighting. Luckily his restaurant and home had survived with some minor damage from small arms, but the buildings he shows me across the street from him lay in rubble. The military presence was strong when he arrived home, with soldiers and patrols constantly checking homes and the streets. He described the city as feeling empty, with a fraction of the people in it, many faces he hasn’t seen since before the start of the first occupation. Some he knows have either fled or died, but many are unaccounted for. Mohammad has been back running his restaurant ever since, but tells me its not the same as it used to be, very few tourists ever come to Palmyra, more so in the last few years but the numbers are still negligible, and mostly operates as a small place for locals to eat and have a drink in. I ask him about the future of Palmyra, but shakes of the question disheartened, explaining that the problems are far from over, and that Palmyra is still rubble.
Currently in the city the Russian military has a strong present, whilst there you can hear the hum of Russian surveillance drones fly over the desert. Some neighbourhoods are sectioned off for use as small military points where the Russian flag can be seen flying. They are also housed in the Fakhr-al-Din al-Ma'ani Castle, also called Palmyra castle, positioned west of the city overlooking it from a mountain. The reason for their presents is that ISIS still exists deep in the desert, with pockets of them about 100km away I’m told. The Russians also carry out demining operations to this day. Either side of the road to Palmyra is also still littered in war debris, with tanks and vehicles left to rust and decay in the sand, and checkpoints sit every so often checking ID and permits. With an ongoing and stagnating conflict with no real end in sight, it is unlikely that Palmyra will return to the oasis it once was and will remain a war-torn shadow of its former self. With very little archaeological and restorative work happening in the city, the ancient ruins risk obtaining more irreparable damage than the Islamic State has already inflicted on this poor city.
Remains of the temple of Baal.