IS has demolished several ancient sites in Iraq, and there has been fears that it will destroy Palmyra, one of the archaeological jewels of the Middle East. An archaeologist who looked after ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria for 40 years is reported to have been killed by Islamic State (IS) militants. Khaled al-Asaad had been held for about a month by the group, which seized the Unesco World Heritage site in May. The 81-year-old's family informed Syria's director of antiquities Maamoun Abdul Karim that he had been beheaded. Mr Karim said IS militants tried find out some information from Mr Assad about where some treasures were hidden, gut he refused to divulge and this lead to him being murdered. Mr Asaad was described as "one of the most important pioneers in Syrian archaeology in the 20th Century". The Syrian state news agency, Sana, and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Mr Asaad had been...