Palmyra sites' destruction by IS 'real tragedy': Kremlin

Destruction by Islamic State jihadists at Syria's ancient city of Palmyra is a "real tragedy" for the world's cultural treasures, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today.
"What is happening (in Palmyra) is a real tragedy from the point of view of cultural and historical heritage," he told journalists. "Barbaric actions of the terrorists are continuing."
Palmyra, an ancient site in central Syria with famous UNESCO-listed temples, was overrun by IS jihadists before being seized in a Russia-backed offensive in March in a highly symbolic victory, and Russian maestro Valery Gergiev gave a concert in its ancient amphitheatre.
However, IS took control of the area again late last year and Syria's antiquities chief said today that the jihadist group has destroyed Palmyra's third century AD tetrapylon and that the amphitheatre was damaged.

Asked whether the Russian military is likely to step in to recapture Palmyra for the second time, Peskov merely said, "Russian military continues to support the Syrians in battling terrorists."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called those who demolish world treasures "barbarians."
"Barbarians will be barbarians," he said during a press conference in Moscow. "Such ideology and practice have absolutely no place in modern civilisation.