ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Islamic State (ISIS) militants have executed at least 400 people in Palmyra since capturing the Syrian city on Wednesday, including women, children and the elderly, the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.
Dozens of victims were government employees, including the head of the nursing department at the National Hospital, who was killed along with her entire family, SANA quoted reliable sources in the city as saying. It said the militants were hunting down government loyalists.
“ISIS terrorists slaughtered and mutilated at least 400 civilians, including children, women and elderly people,” the agency reported. They “were killed on charges of loyalty to the Syrian government and disobedience to ISIS,” it said.
“Thousands of other residents are besieged inside the city as ISIS has prevented them from leaving,” it added. “The residents are having their properties seized by ISIS members.”
Meanwhile, the Associated Press quoted a Syrian official as saying that ISIS has "committed mass massacres in the city of Palmyra" since its capture.
It quoted Governor Talal Barazi of the central province of Homs, which includes Palmyra, as saying that the Syrian army is deploying troops in areas near Palmyra in apparent preparation for a counterattack to retake the city.
ISIS fighters seized Palmyra last week after pro-government forces pulled out of the city.
Palmyra, northeast of the Syrian capital Damascus, sits on Hellenistic and Roman ruins that date back more than 2,000 years. There are fears that the militants could destroy the ancient city, as they have done in Iraq, destroying museums, statues and ancient artifacts in Nineveh province.
ISIS seized Palmyra only days after storming into Ramadi, capital of Iraq’s largest province, Anbar, calling into question both the Iraqi Army’s will to fight and the effectiveness of months of US-led airstrikes against the militants.
The head of the Shiite Badr Organization in Iraq warned Sunday that Baghdad is under threat following the fall of Ramadi.
“The fall of Ramadi is a direct threat on Karbala and Baghdad,” Hadi al-Amri said in a speech.
