“They are everywhere.”
That is the stark observation about ISIS fighters in Palmyra from a 26-year-old resident there, detailing the terrorist group’s swift, destructive takeover of yet another city in its quest to brutally expand its caliphate.
This capture threatens a UNESCO World Heritage Site described as having “stood at the crossroads of several civilizations,” with its art and architecture mixing Greek, Roman and Persian influences, according to that U.N. group. U.N. and Syrian officials have expressed fears that ISIS plans to destroy the ruins, just as it flattened the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud and smashed statues in Iraq’s Mosul Museum.
But Palmyra, which is also known as Tadmur, isn’t just a matter of history. Today, it’s also home to tens of thousands of people — many of whom, if they haven’t already fled, cower in fear they’ll meet the same grisly fate of so many others conquered by ISIS.
They’re people like the 26-year-old who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. He’s huddled in a house with 50 people, among them his family members and neighbors who have lost their own homes, and worried that food will run out while his city is under curfew.
After at least 100 Syrian soldiers died in fighting overnight, Syrian warplanes carried out airstrikes Thursday in and around Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. But there’s no indication when, or if, Syrian ground forces will try to take back the city. Nor is there a sense that any of the others fighting ISIS, like the United States, will come to the rescue.
“The world does not care about us,” the Palmyra resident said. “All they are interested in is the stones of ancient Palmyra.”
‘I want to die in my city’
After days of regular sparring, ISIS fighters made a big push early Thursday, at which point the Syrian government forces retreated, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict in the Middle Eastern nation.
“ISIS has taken the prison of Palmyra, the intelligence headquarters, everything,” the executive director of that London-based group, Rami Abdurrahman, told CNN. “Everything.”
In its daily news bulletin, ISIS credited its fighters with “completely liberating” the city and taking over the prison and a nearby military airbase. It added that this assault left “several dead soldiers behind,” and it tweeted photos claiming to be from Palmyra showing the bloodied bodies of men not in uniform prone on a street.
The Sunni Muslim jihadists spent much of Thursday trying to secure their hold, implementing a curfew and going door-to-door ostensibly looking for Syrian soldiers, according to the 26-year-old resident. He said eight ISIS fighters went through his house downtown and were “trying to appear friendly.”
That said, there’s no illusion all is well. That hasn’t been the case ever since civil war broke out four years ago in Syria, providing an opening for groups like ISIS to emerge and take over territory held by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. With its latest offensive, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that ISIS controls more than half of the country in parts of 10 of its 14 provinces, not to mention “the vast majority of the gas and oil fields in Syria.”
Fueled by its success in Syria, the militant group also managed to capture swaths of neighboring Iraq, including its second-largest city, Mosul. Early this week, ISIS seized the key city of Ramadi, a milestone that a U.S. State Department official acknowledged is a major blow in coalition efforts to defeat ISIS.
And yet the Palmyra resident who talked to CNN isn’t ready to walk away, even to save his life.
“I did not feel safe four years ago,” he said. “But (still now), I do not want to leave. I want to die in my city.”
Historian: ‘Couldn’t be higher stakes’
The fall of Palmyra, along with ISIS’ progress generally, spurred condemnation and desperation worldwide, leading to tweets that used #SavePalmyra.
“Am screaming #SavePalmyra out of sheer despair,” an activist wrote, “as I dont know who this scream is directed to or what anyone can do.”
Unfortunately, the struggles these people are facing aren’t new, as ISIS has conquered many others around Syria and Iraq. But what makes the city stand out is its history, including the ruins and relics that define Palmyra in the world’s eyes, that likewise may not survive.
The city already was a caravan oasis when Romans overtook it in the mid-first century. Its importance grew as a city on the trade route linking the Roman Empire to Persia, India and China, according to the U.N. agency.
British historian and novelist Tom Holland has described Palmyra as “an extraordinary fusion of classical and Iranian influences intermixed with various Arab influence as well.”
Destruction of Palmyra, which is 95 miles (153 kilometers) east of the flashpoint city of Homs and 150 miles northeast of the government capital of Damascus, wouldn’t just be a tragedy for Syria. It would be a loss for the entire world, Holland told CNN.
“Mesopotamia, Iraq, Syria, this is the wellspring of global civilization,” he said. “It really couldn’t be higher stakes in terms of conservation.”
Will centuries-old artifacts be destroyed or sold?
Already, Syria has seen evidence of its storied past damaged and destroyed by war.
Notable casualties include 11th-century crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers; regime airstrikes severely damaged its walls in 2013. Aleppo’s covered market, a formerly thriving part of Syria’s economic and social life, was severely damaged in a fire in 2012.
Even then, as with many other things, ISIS is “distinctive and horrendous” in how it treats history, Holland said.
The Islamist extremists have shown no hesitation destroying such history, propagandizing that destroying idols or false gods follows in the footsteps of the Prophet Mohammed, who smashed statues in Mecca. In fact, they’ve often made a show of it.
The Syrian government says it has moved many artifacts, including hundreds of statues, to safer locations. But there’s no guarantee that it secured everything, and it can’t relocate an entire archeological site.
Besides destruction, ISIS could also try to profit from its rampage, said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle East studies at The London School of Economics.
“They have networks that allow them to traffic in cultural treasures,” adds Gerges, the author of the forthcoming book “ISIS: A Short History.” “They have made tens of millions of dollars selling artworks.”