France and the United Arab Emirates on Saturday launched a $100 million fund to protect heritage sites threatened by extremism and conflict after the destruction last month of an ancient palace by Islamic State militants in Iraq. "Conflict causes irreparable damage to valuable heritage sites in Syria, Iraq, Mali and many others," WAM quoted Mohammed al-Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi's tourism and culture authority, as saying. France and the UAE are part of a U.S.-led international military coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria and say they want to protect artifacts threatened by air strikes, smugglers and militant groups. Islamic State fighters last year dynamited several monuments including the Baal Shamin temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, an act the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO called a war crime. "This fanaticism is an attack on civilizations and thus on the unity of the human species," Hollande told the UNESCO conference, referring to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Source: Egypt Independent December 03, 2016 14:33 UTC