ISIS executes three people by tying them to columns at the ancient city of Palmyra and blowing them up

  • Reports from Syria say the three as yet unidentified victims killed by jihadis
  • Claim they were kidnapped near the ancient city before being executed
  • Strapped to 2,000 year old columns and then blown up with explosives
  • ISIS consider pre-Islamic artefacts idolatrous and worthy of destruction
  • For more of the latest ISIS news and updates visit  www.dailymail.co.uk/isis

By Euan McLelland For MailOnline

Published: 01:52 EST, 27 October 2015 | Updated: 09:00 EST, 27 October 2015

ISIS executed three people in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra by binding them to three historic columns and blowing them up, a monitoring group said Monday.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said IS 'tied three individuals it had arrested from Palmyra and its outskirts to the columns... and executed them by blowing up' three columns.

Khaled al-Homsi, an activist from Palmyra, stated that IS had yet to inform local residents who the executed individuals were or why they had been killed.

ISIS executed three people in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra by binding them to three historic columns and blowing them up, a monitoring group said Monday (a previous image of the terror group on the world heritage site)

ISIS executed three people in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra by binding them to three historic columns and blowing them up, a monitoring group said Monday (a previous image of the terror group on the world heritage site)

Homsi, who works with the local Palmyra Coordination Committee activist group, said: 'There was no one there to see [the execution]. The columns were destroyed and IS has prevented anyone from heading to the site.'

Mohammad al-Ayed, also an activist from Palmyra, said the columns were 'archeological, and there are many like them still present in Palmyra.'

'IS is doing this for the media attention, so that they can say that it is the most villainous, and so it can get people's attention,' al-Ayed was reported to have said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said IS 'tied three individuals it had arrested from Palmyra and its outskirts to the columns... and executed them by blowing up' three of the columns (pictured)

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said IS 'tied three individuals it had arrested from Palmyra and its outskirts to the columns... and executed them by blowing up' three of the columns (pictured)

Islamic state militants were pictured carrying explosives into the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra earlier this year. They then blew it up

Islamic state militants were pictured carrying explosives into the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra earlier this year. They then blew it up

The Islamic State has captured swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria to create a self-styled 'caliphate' where it enforces an extreme form of Islamic rule.

IS considers pre-Islamic artefacts to be idolatrous and therefore worthy of destruction.

Since the jihadists seized Palmyra from regime forces in May, they have destroyed multiple sites and historic artefacts, including its celebrated temples of Bel and Baal Shamin as well as several funerary towers.

Since the jihadists seized Palmyra from regime forces in May, they have destroyed multiple sites and historic artefacts, including its celebrated temples of Bel and Baal Shamin as well as several funerary towers

Since the jihadists seized Palmyra from regime forces in May, they have destroyed multiple sites and historic artefacts, including its celebrated temples of Bel and Baal Shamin as well as several funerary towers

They've used Palmyra's grand amphitheatre for a massacre in which child members of the group killed 25 Syrian soldiers, execution-style, in front of residents.

It also beheaded Palmyra's 82-year-old former antiquities director in August.

Palmyra's ruins are on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and before the war around 150,000 tourists a year visited the town.

Experts say the militants have used the destruction to raise their profile to attract new recruits, and are also funding their 'caliphate' by selling treasures on the black market.

Syria's archaeology association, the APSA, says that more than 900 monuments and archeological sites have been looted, damaged or destroyed during the four-year civil war.

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