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| In this image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network (SNN), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a fire rages at a medieval souk in Aleppo, Syria. Syrian rebels and residents of Aleppo struggled Saturday to contain a huge fire that destroyed parts of the city's medieval souks, or markets, following raging battles between government troops and opposition fighters there, activists said. Some described the overnight blaze as the worst blow yet to a historic district that helped make the heart of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and commercial hub, a UNESCO world heritage site. |
BEIRUT (AP)
-- A fire sparked by battles between Syrian President Bashar Assad's
troops and rebel fighters tore through Aleppo's centuries-old covered
market Saturday, burning wooden doors and scorching stone stalls and
vaulted passageways. The souk is one of a half-dozen renowned cultural
sites in the country that have become collateral damage in the civil
war.
The damage to one of the best-preserved
old souks in the Middle East was the worst yet to a UNESCO World
Heritage site in Syria. Across the country, looters have broken into a
historic castle, stolen artifacts from museums and damaged ruins in the
ancient city of Palmyra, antiquities officials and Syrian experts say.
The
Aleppo market, a major tourist attraction with its narrow stone alleys
and stores selling perfume, fabrics and spices, had been the site of
occasional gun battles and shelling for weeks. But amateur video posted
Saturday showed wall-to-wall flames engulfing wooden doors as burning
debris fell away from the storefronts. Activists said hundreds of shops
were affected.
"It's a big loss and a tragedy
that the old city has now been affected," Kishore Rao, director of
UNESCO's World Heritage Center, told The Associated Press by telephone
from Paris.
Most of the other sites recognized
as heritage sites by UNESCO, the global cultural agency, are also
believed to have suffered damage during the 18-month battle to oust
Assad, Rao said. The ancient center of Aleppo - Syria's largest city -
has been hit the hardest, he said.
"It is a
very difficult and tragic situation there," said Ahmad al-Halabi, a
local activist speaking by phone from the area. He said rebels and
civilians were trying to control the blaze, but only had a few fire
extinguishers.
The fire in the souk erupted
late Friday and was still burning Saturday, following fierce fighting
between regime troops and rebels trying to drive pro-Assad fighters out
of the city of 3 million.
On Thursday, rebels
launched what they said would be a "decisive battle" for the city,
followed by days of heavy fighting, including shelling and street
combat. Amateur video has shown rebels taking cover behind walls and
makeshift barriers, attacking regime forces with grenades and assault
rifles. Activists reported heavy shelling by pro-Assad troops.
Once
considered a bastion of support for Assad, Aleppo has become the focus
of the insurgency for the last two months, with rebels taking about half
the city. Aleppo would be a major strategic prize: A rebel victory
would give Syria's opposition a major stronghold near the Turrkish
border, while a regime victory would give Assad some breathing space.
It's
not clear what set off the fire in the old market, made of hundreds of
stone stalls that line covered alleys with vaulted ceilings. Amateur
footage posted online by activists showed flames engulfing the shops and
rebels aiming a water hose at the fire. The shops' wooden doors, along
with the clothes, fabrics and inside some of the businesses, helped fuel
the blaze, activists said.
The market stalls
lie beneath the city's towering 13th century citadel, where activists
say regime troops and snipers have taken up positions.
The
Syrian conflict has killed more than 30,000 people, according to
activists. It has also wreaked widespread destruction, particularly in
recent weeks as regime forces stepped up air strikes and shelling
attacks, and rebels fired mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades.
Entire neighborhoods in Syria's three largest cities - Aleppo, the
capital Damascus and Homs - have been devastated.
A
majority of Syria's 23 million people live in a thin western sliver of
the country; in this territory, rebels have established positions in
rural areas, while Assad's forces are trying to hold on to the cities.
Aleppo's
old center was added in 1986 to UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.
Of the medieval souks in the Middle East, Aleppo's was among the
best-preserved, offering visitors a range of architectural styles
covering hundreds of years, said Rodrigo Martin, a Brussels expert on
Syrian historical sites.
"It was a unique
example of medieval commercial architecture," said Martin, a spokesman
for a group of experts who monitor damage to Syrian historical sites and
cooperate with the U.N. cultural agency.
Some of the other prized cultural attractions have also suffered damage.
Earlier
this year, looters broke into Crac des Chevaliers, one of the world's
best-preserved Crusader castles, a Syrian antiquities official said at
the time. Shelling also damaged the site, said Martin, citing amateur
video.
The ruins of the ancient city of
Palmyra were damaged by fighting, Martin said, according to reports he
received from Syria. He said he had seen video that showed sculptures
being taken away from Palmyra in a small truck.
The
other World Heritage sites on UNESCO's list are the old center of
Damascus, one of the most ancient cities in the Middle East; the ancient
city of Bosra, once the capital of the Roman province of Arabia; and a
group of some 40 villages of north-western Syria that date from the
first to seventh centuries.
Rao, the World
Heritage chief, said the U.N. agency has asked Syria's neighbors to be
on the alert for attempts to smuggle looted objects out of the country.
No incidents had been reported so far.
Lesser
sites have also been affected in Syria. Regime shelling of neighborhoods
where the opposition is holed up has smashed historic mosques, churches
and souks in the central Homs province and elsewhere in the country.
Looters have stolen artifacts from museums.
Martin
said the Syrian regime bears the bulk of the responsibility for the
destruction because it signed international agreements to protect
cultural sites.
For at least two millennia, cultural sites have been threatened or destroyed by wars throughout the Mideast, Martin said.
"History continues, whatever we do," Martin said. "Mankind can just be really destructive."
