With jihadis at the door, Syrians rush to rescue history

DAMASCUS, Syria -- With Islamic State group militants on the doorstep of his hometown in eastern Syria, Yaroob al-Abdullah had little time. He already had rushed his wife and four daughters to safety. Now he had to save the thousands of ancient artifacts he loved.

In a week of furious work in summer heat, tired and dehydrated from the Ramadan fast, the head of antiquities in Deir el-Zour province and his staff packed up most of the contents of the museum in the provincial capital. Then he flew with 12 boxes of relics to Damascus.

The pieces included masterpieces: A nearly 5,000-year-old statuette of a smiling worshipper. A colorful mural fragment from a second-century temple for the god Bel. Thousands of fragile clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing, including administrative records, letters and business deals that provide a glimpse at life nearly 4,000 years ago in the Semitic kingdom of Mari.

The move, carried out in 2014, was part of a mission by antiquities officials across Syria to evacuate everything that could be saved from Islamic State extremists and looters. The extent of the operation has been little known until now, but its participants described a massive effort -- at least 29 of Syria's 34 museums largely emptied out and more than 300,000 artifacts brought to the capital.

The pieces are hidden in secret locations known only to the few specialists who handled them, said Maamoun Abdulkarim, who as head of the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus oversaw the operation.

"Other than that, no one knows where these antiquities are -- not a politician, not any other Syrian," Abdulkarim said.

There's much that couldn't be saved. The damage is most symbolized by Palmyra, the jewel of Syrian archaeology, a marvelously preserved Roman-era city. IS militants captured it last year and blew up at least two of its most stunning temples.

Over the weekend, Syrian government forces recaptured Palmyra from the militants and discovered they had trashed the city museum, smashing statues and looting relics -- although fortunately, about 400 pieces had been hidden away by antiquities officials before the IS takeover.

Across the country, the destruction has been tragic. Wherever they overran territory in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State jihadis relentlessly blew up, bulldozed or otherwise tore down monuments they consider pagan affronts. They and other traffickers have taken advantage of the chaos from the 5-year-old civil war to loot sites and sell off artifacts. Even in the museums that were evacuated, some items were too large to move -- giant statues or ancient gates and murals -- and fell into IS hands, their fate unknown.

But the 2,500 archaeologists, specialists, curators and engineers with Syria's antiquities department, including some who defected to join the opposition, often have risked death to protect what they can.

One 25-year-old woman led a military convoy carrying antiquities out of the northern city of Aleppo, a major battleground between rebels and government forces. Out of fear for her safety, she requested anonymity.

Guards at archaeological digs and other sites in areas now under IS control secretly keep tabs on the ruins and feed Abdulkarim photo updates on WhatsApp. Several of them have been killed.

Khaled al-Asaad, Palmyra's retired antiquities chief, was beheaded by the extremists in August after spiriting away artifacts from the city's museum.

Ziad al-Nouiji, who took over from al-Abdullah as head of antiquities in Deir el-Zour, brought a second load of relics to Damascus last June.