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| COMBO - This combination of two citizen journalist images provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows at left: the damaged famed 12th century Umayyad mosque without the minaret, background right corner, which was destroyed by the shelling, in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday April 24, 2013; and at right, a March 6, 2013 view of the mosque with is minaret still intact. he minaret of a famed 12th century Sunni mosque in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo was destroyed Wednesday, April 24, 2013. President Bashar Assad's regime and anti-government activists traded blame for the attack against the Umayyad mosque, which occurred in the heart Aleppo's walled Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage site. |
BEIRUT (AP)
-- The 11th-century minaret of a famed mosque that towered over the
narrow stone alleyways of Aleppo's old quarter collapsed Wednesday as
rebels and government troops fought pitched battles in the streets
around it, depriving the ancient Syrian city of one of its most
important landmarks.
President Bashar Assad's
government and the rebels trying to overthrow him traded blame over the
destruction to the Umayyad Mosque, a UNESCO world heritage site and
centerpiece of Aleppo's walled Old City.
"This
is like blowing up the Taj Mahal or destroying the Acropolis in Athens.
This mosque is a living sanctuary," said Helga Seeden, a professor of
archaeology at the American University of Beirut. "This is a disaster.
In terms of heritage, this is the worst I've seen in Syria. I'm
horrified."
Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a
commercial hub, emerged as a key battleground in the nation's civil war
after rebels launched an offensive there last summer. Since then, the
fighting has carved the city into rebel- and regime-held zones, killed
thousands of people, forced thousands more to flee their homes and laid
waste to entire neighborhoods.
The Umayyad
Mosque complex, which dates mostly from the 12th century, suffered
extensive damage in October as both sides fought to control the walled
compound in the heart of the old city. The fighting left the mosque
burned, scarred by bullets and trashed. Two weeks earlier, the nearby
medieval covered market, or souk, was gutted by a fire sparked by
fighting.
With thousands of years of written
history, Syria is home to archaeological treasures that date back to
biblical times, including the desert oasis of Palmyra, a cultural center
of the ancient world. The nation's capital, Damascus, is one of the
oldest continually inhabited cities in the world.
At
least five of Syria's six World Heritage sites have been damaged in the
fighting, according to UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency. Looters have
broken into one of the world's best-preserved Crusader castles, Crac
des Chevaliers, and ruins in the ancient city of Palmyra were damaged.
Both rebel and regime forces have set up bases in some of Syria's
significant historic sites, including citadels and Turkish bath houses,
while thieves have stolen artifacts from museums.
The
destruction of the minaret - which dated to 1090 and was the oldest
surviving part of the Umayyad Mosque - brought outrage and grief.
"What
is happening is a big shame," said Imad a-Khal, a 59-year-old Christian
businessman in Aleppo.
"Thousands of tourists used to visit this site.
Every day is a black day for Syrians."
The
main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition,
accused the government of intentionally committing "a crime against
civilization and humanity" by destroying the minaret.
"The
regime has done all it can to tear apart the Syrian social fabric," the
Coalition said in a statement. "By its killings and destruction of
heritage, it is planting bitterness in the hearts of the people that
will be difficult to erase for a long time to come."
There
were conflicting accounts about what leveled the minaret, leaving the
once-soaring stone tower a pile of rubble and twisted metal scattered in
the mosque's tiled courtyard.
Syria's state
news agency said rebels from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group
blew it up, while Aleppo-based activist Mohammed al-Khatib said a Syrian
army tank fired a shell that "totally destroyed" the minaret.
The
mosque fell into rebel hands earlier this year after heavy fighting but
the area around the compound remains contested, with Syrian troops just
some 200 yards (meters) away.
An amateur
video posted online by the anti-government Aleppo Media Center showed
the mosque's vaulted archways charred from earlier fighting and a pile
of rubble where the minaret used to be.
Standing
inside the mosque courtyard, a man who appeared to be a rebel fighter,
said regime forces recently fired seven shells at the minaret but failed
to knock it down. On Wednesday, the tank rounds struck their target, he
said.
"We were standing here today and
suddenly shells started hitting the minaret," the man said. The army
"then tried to storm the mosque but we pushed them back."
The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting.
The
destruction in Aleppo follows the collapse a week earlier of the
minaret of the historic Omari Mosque in the southern city of Daraa. The
Daraa mosque was built during the Islamic conquest of Syria in the days
of Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab in the seventh century.
In
that instance as well, the opposition and regime blamed each other. The
state news agency accused Jabhat al-Nusra of positioning cameras around
the area to record the event.
Whether the
destruction is targeted or not, the damage highlights the difficulties
of protecting a nation's cultural heritage in wartime.
"Culture
can only really be protected in peace time. When you have open warfare,
it is impossible," said Seeden, the archaeology professor in Beirut.
"When buildings are under fire, you cannot protect the buildings. You
can't protect what's in it, if they are mosaics, wall paintings,
architectural details that are part of the building - there's no way you
can protect them."
After the Umayyad Mosque
was first damaged last year, Assad issued a presidential decree to form a
committee to repair it by the end of 2013, although it's not clear what
such a body could do amid a raging civil war. The mosque's last
renovations began about 20 years ago and were completed in 2006.
The
damage in Aleppo is just part of the wider devastation caused by the
country's conflict, which began more than two years ago with largely
peaceful protests but morphed into a civil war as the opposition took up
arms in the face of a withering government crackdown. The fighting has
exacted a huge toll, killing more than 70,000 people, leaving cities,
towns and villages in ruins and forcing more than a million people to
flee their homes and seek refuge abroad.
Also
Wednesday, Syrian church officials said the whereabouts of two bishops
kidnapped in northern Syria remain unknown, a day after telling
reporters the priests had been released.
Gunmen
pulled Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Bishop
John Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church from their car and killed
their driver on Monday while they were traveling outside Aleppo. It was
not clear who abducted the priests.
But Bishop
Tony Yazigi of the Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Church said the gunmen
are believed to be Chechen fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra. Yazigi
declined to say what made it appear that the Nusra Front was involved.
That
account corresponded with one provided by the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, which said foreign fighters had abducted
the bishops near a checkpoint outside Aleppo. Director Rami Abdul-Rahman
said activists in the area said the gunmen were foreign fighters from
the Caucuses.
However, the main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned the kidnapping and blamed Assad's regime.
In
Rome, Pope Francis called for the rapid release of the two bishops. In
his appeal Tuesday, the pontiff called the abduction "a dramatic
confirmation of the tragic situation in which the Syrian population and
its Christian community are living."
There has
been a spike in kidnappings in northern Syria, much of which is
controlled by the rebels, and around Damascus in recent months.
Residents blame criminal groups that have ties to both the regime and
the rebels for the abductions of wealthy residents traveling to Syria
from neighboring Turkey and Lebanon.
