DAMASCUS - The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorists blew up Sunday a nearly 2,000-year-old arch of Triumph in the besieged ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO world Heritage site, in the central Homs province.

The Arch of Triumph was one of the most recognizable sites in Palmyra “Bride of the Desert”, which the ISIS group seized in May, as it sat atop the famed colonnaded streets of the ancient city, SANA reported.

Director General of the Antiquities and Museums Directorate Maamoun Abdul-Karim confirmed in a statement to SANA ISIS’s new aggression, citing local sources in Palmyra city as saying that the ISIS terrorists booby trapped and blew up the Arch of Triumph which was destroyed completely.

DAMASCUS – The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) blew up three ancient tower tombs in Palmyra city, a UNESCO world Heritage site, located in the central Homs province.

Director General of the Antiquities and Museums Directorate Maamoun Abdul-Karim confirmed ISIS new aggression, citing local sources in Palmyra city and satellite images released by Boston University on September 2^nd, SANA reported.

This aggressive attack is one of a series of deliberate vandalism acts inflicted by ISIS on ruins and historical sites in Palmyra after it took over it last May, where they destroyed last August large parts of the ancient Temple of Bel, dating back to 32 AD, and Temple of Baalshamin.

Islamic State militants have destroyed a temple at Syria's ancient ruins of Palmyra, activists said Sunday, realizing the worst fears archaeologists had for the 2,000-year-old Roman-era city after the extremists seized it and beheaded a local scholar, AP reported.

Palmyra, one of the Middle East's most spectacular archaeological sites and a UNESCO World Heritage site, sits near the modern Syrian city of the same name. Activists said the militants used explosives to blow up the Baalshamin Temple on its grounds, the blast so powerful it also damaged some of the Roman columns around it.

The news that a prominent Syrian scholar has been brutally murdered by Islamic State terrorists has hit the arts community hard -- and has been condemned by Syria's antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdul Karim, as a "cowardly and criminal act of appalling brutality."

But the beheading of the 82-year-old Khaled Asaad , an archaeologist and researcher who for half a century has served as guardian of the exquisite ancient ruins at Palmyra, also demonstrates the great uncertainty facing the famed UNESCO World Heritage Site, Los Angeles Times reported.

Asaad's barbaric killing  is not a good omen for the future of this singular ancient city, an important Silk Road hub that bears Greco-Roman, Persian, Indian, Chinese and other influences -- some of which date back more than two millennia. Scholars around the world have been on edge about its future since May, when Islamic State militants invaded the area, killing hundreds of local residents. The terrorists are known as much for their violence against humans as for their destruction of historic sites -- from pre-Islamic pagan temples to Muslim shrines -- under the pretense that they are idolatrous.

DAMASCUS, (ST) - A specialized team representing the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums said that the people in the town of Burhliya located in Damascus countryside at Wadi (River) Barada had found a mosaic tablet by accident and informed the authorities about its existence. The tablet has been documented  and transferred to the National Museum in Damascus where it will be restored, studied and qualified to be displayed in the museum.