ISIS philistines vandalised more ancient monuments in Syria’s Palmyra after executing 12 captives in the Roman amphitheatre, residents said yesterday.

Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim said the death cult blew up the facade of the theatre and and the Tetrapylon quadrangle of 16 columns on four plinths.

That followed the Salafists’ latest act of barbarism on Wednesday when they executed 12 people in the amphitheatre, four of them by beheading.

Among those killed were four civil servants, two teachers and four captured soldiers.

The Tetrapylon, of which only one column had survived to the modern day, had been restored by Palmyra’s veteran scholar Khaled al-Asaad — executed by Isis during the previous occupation and hanged from a column.

“When Palmyra fell for the second time [in December], we shed tears because we expected this terror,” Mr Abdulkarim said. “Now we are destined to see more terror if it continues.”

Unesco director-general Irina Bokova called the latest destruction at the world heritage site “a new war crime and an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity.”

West of Palmyra, the Syrian army began a new counter-offensive yesterday, taking several points east of Qaryatayn.

And troops continued advancing in Aleppo province.

In the besieged city of Deir Ezzor to the east, soldiers launched a big push to break through to the airport, which was cut off by Isis at the weekend. Seven civilians were killed by Isis shelling.

And Damascus provincial Governor Alaa Ibrahim confirmed rumours that talks with militants in the Barada valley, who have cut off water supplies to 5.5 million people, were ongoing.

“These deliberations are Syrian-Syrian where neither the UN nor any other external party are playing a role,” he said.

Meanwhile on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said Ankara had given up on ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He said: “facts on the ground have changed dramatically” and “Turkey can no longer insist on, you know, a settlement without Assad.”

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