World Bulletin / News Desk

Destruction by ISIL extremists at Syria's ancient city of  Palmyra is a "real tragedy" for the world's cultural treasures, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

Palmyra, an ancient site in central Syria with famous UNESCO-listed temples, was overrun by IS extremists before being seized in a Russia-backed offensive in March in a highly symbolic victory, and Russian maestro Valery Gergiev gave a concert in its ancient amphitheatre.

However, IS took control of the area again late last year and Syria's antiquities chief said Friday that the extremist group has destroyed Palmyra's third century AD tetrapylon and that the amphitheatre was damaged.

Asked whether the Russian military is likely to step in to recapture Palmyra for the second time, Peskov merely said, "Russian military continues to support the Syrians in battling extremists."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called those who demolish world treasures "barbarians."

"Barbarians will be barbarians," he said during a press conference in Moscow. "Such ideology and practice have absolutely no place in modern civilisation."

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