BEIRUT, Lebanon — The extremists of the Islamic State have beheaded the 83-year-old retired director of antiquities in the Syrian city of Palmyra, one of the world’s most important archaeological sites.
Before his retirement about a decade ago, the director, Khalid al-Asaad, was the top overseer for Palmyra’s sprawling Roman-era ruins and the gatekeeper for researchers seeking to work there for more than five decades.
“Anyone who wanted to do anything in Palmyra had to work though Khalid al-Asaad,” said Amr Al-Azm, a Syrian professor of Middle Eastern history and anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio. “He was Mr. Palmyra.”
After being detained for weeks by the Islamic State jihadists whoseized the city this year, Mr. Asaad was killed on Tuesday, according to the Syrian government and conflict monitoring groups.
A photo distributed on social media by Islamic State supporters showed Mr. Asaad’s blood-soaked body suspended by its wrists with string from a traffic light. His head had been cut off and was resting on the ground between his feet, his glasses still on.
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The Islamic State’s Advantage at Historic Sites
As it expanded across Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State destroyed many archaeological sites, looting them for profit and damaging some for propaganda.
Fighters from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, seized Palmyra from government forces in May, raising fears that they would destroy its rich antiquities or sell them to finance its operations.
Workers managed to smuggled out much of the contents of the city’s museum before the jihadists entered, but some larger pieces left behindhave been destroyed, as have a number of tombs in the area.
The jihadists are not believed to have significantly damaged the city’s ruins, and some think they are using them for protection, assuming that the United States-led military coalition that is bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria will not bomb a Unesco heritage site.
Mr. Asaad’s relatives said that he had remained a supporter of the government of President Bashar al-Assad to the end, and that he had been especially alarmed when protesters seeking Mr. Assad’s ouster took up arms against him.
Despite his long career with the Syrian government, Mr. Asaad never considered fleeing the city as the jihadists approached, or even after they detained him for a few days, relatives said.
“He was a man who was very connected to his city and to the antiquities,” said his nephew, an anti-government activist who goes by the name Khalid al-Homsi. “He was old. Where would he want to go at that age? He said that whatever was going to happen to the people would happen to him.”
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