Syria’s antiquities department and a war monitor says a 3,000-year-old temple has been damaged in Turkish air strikes on a Kurdish militia in the country’s north.
The Iron Age neo-Hittite temple of Ain Dara dates back to the Aramean era, from around 1300 to 700 BC, and is named after a village located in the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin.
Turkey launched Operation “Olive Branch” on January 20, against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition fighters with ground troops and air strikes.
The remains of the ancient Ain Dara temple in Syria. (CC BY-SA 3.0, Odilia, Wikipedia)
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the temple was struck by air strikes on Friday.
“It has been destroyed up to 60 percent,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Syria’s antiquities department, a government agency, confirmed the attack on “one of the most important monuments built by the Arameans in Syria during the first millennium BC”.
— AFP
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
