BEIRUT (AP) — Russia has built a military encampment inside a zone that holds the UNESCO world heritage site in the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra, where Islamic State militants were driven out recently by pro-government forces.
The Russian military described the camp Tuesday as "temporary," saying its few housing units were being used by explosives experts who are removing mines left behind by the militants, and that the Syrian government had given approval to build the camp.
The head of Syria's Antiquities and Museums department, who noted the town's priceless antiquities are safer thanks to the Russian presence, nonetheless said he would not have granted Russia permission to build the camp if he had been asked.
A UNESCO official said it was unclear whether the encampment was in a buffer zone to the archaeological site, but said it does not pose a threat to the historic area.
The American School of Oriental Research's Cultural Heritage Initiative posted photos from the satellite imagery and analytics company DigitalGlobe that show the construction on the edge of the ancient site that was damaged by the Islamic State group, which held Palmyra for 10 months.
Syrian troops backed by Russian airstrikes captured Palmyra in March and fighting continues nearby. In recent weeks, IS fighters launched an offensive in which they captured a nearby gas field that brought them close to the town.
Russian demining experts have found and detonated hundreds of bombs left behind by IS at and near the site since the town was recaptured.
Maamoun Abdulkarim, head of Syria's Antiquities and Museums Department, told The Associated Press that the Russians have built a small barracks that includes offices and clinics.
Abdulkarim said his organization was not asked for permission but added that the presence of Russian and Syrian troops is important to ensure that the site remains in government hands.
"We refuse to give permission even if it was for a small room to be built inside the site — whether it is for the Syrian army, Russian army or anyone else," Abdulkarim said by telephone from Damascus. "We will never give such permission because this will be in violation of the archaeology law."
Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said Syrian authorities had given permission.
"The deployment of this temporary camp through the end of the demining effort has been fully agreed upon with the Ministry of Culture and other Syrian agencies," he said in a statement. "Along with housing modules, it also has a field hospital providing medical assistance to the local population and field bakery, whose production is also handed out to the Syrians."
Konashenkov added that UNESCO experts were among those who attended a concert this month in Palmyra by St. Petersburg's Mariinsky orchestra with renowned Russian conductor Valery Gergiev.
Russian combat engineers have defused about 18,000 explosives around Palmyra since it was recaptured, he added.
During their 10 months in Palmyra, the IS militants destroyed the Temple of Bel, which dated back to A.D. 32, the Temple of Baalshamin, which was several stories high and fronted by six towering columns, and the Arch of Triumph, which was built under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus between A.D. 193 and A.D. 211.