Islamic State extremists captured the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra on Wednesday, drawing alarm worldwide about the fate of one of the world’s most spectacular architectural treasures. 
 
 The apparent capture of the historic city from government forces came days after the extremists took control of the strategic city of Ramadi in neighboring Iraq. 
 
 Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s general director of antiquities and museums, said Palmyra's town museum had suffered “minor damages” during the onslaught. 
 
 “The city is now totally controlled by gunmen and its destiny is dark and dim,” Abdulkarim told the Associated Press. “We are in a state of anticipation and fear” about what will happen to “the archaeological site and the remaining artifacts in the museum.” 
 
 Many Palmyra residents were fleeing the town Thursday toward the city of Homs and the capital, Damascus, Talal Barazi, the governor of the central province of Homs, told the AP. The Syrian army is now outside the town, from where it is targeting Islamic State reinforcements, he said. 
 
 “We have not received any news about [the archaeological site's] destruction,” Barazi said. “We hope that there will be no massacres in the city or damage to the ruins.” 
 
 The United States had expressed concern about the fate of Palmyra and the ancient ruins Wednesday. 
 
 "We are deeply concerned by reports of [Islamic State’s] attacks on the Syrian city which holds the ruins of Palmyra," said Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman. "There are different reports about exactly what’s happening there, so it’s hard for us to nail down ... exactly what’s happening on the ground. But we know that this is a city that has been caught in the crossfire for some time, certainly." 
 
 "We’ll keep seeing what’s happening on the ground, but this is the reason we’re trying to push back [Islamic State] out of Iraq and to try and help the Syrian opposition push back [Islamic State] in Syria," Harf said. 
 
 Islamic State fighters, some using tunnels, had entered the city of Tadmur, which adjoins the ruins, Abdulkarim, the director of antiquities, said Wednesday. Syrian army units, he said, were fighting to stop the extremists from entering the sprawling archaeological site, known for its majestic colonnades from the Roman era, stone roads and ancient burial site. 
 
 “There are solitary elements with light weapons who infiltrated some areas, they are trying to spread into the city,” Abdulkarim said in a telephone interview. “The large numbers have yet to come in, and we are asking for the international community to stop those people.” 
 
 On Wednesday, he had called for U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on Islamic State convoys approaching the archaeological site, a stunning collection of ruins that rise from the desert in what was a crucial trade hub, caravan stop and prosperous metropolis in ancient times. Before the Syrian war, Palmyra was a major tourist attraction, drawing visitors from across the globe to the isolated site about 130 miles northeast of Damascus, the capital. 
 
 Syria and Iraq have long been crossroads of civilization and are home to many significant historic sites and ancient ruins. 
 
 Irina Bokova, the director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said she was “deeply concerned” about reports of armed conflict near Palmyra, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. 
 
 “The fighting is putting at risk one of the most significant sites in the Middle East, and its civilian population,” Bokova said in a statement Wednesday, calling for “an immediate cessation of hostilities” at the site. 
 
 The army is thinly stretched, fighting rebel forces on many fronts. Palmyra is in a strategic zone of Homs province, near gas fields and on the road to the Islamic State stronghold of Dair Alzour and Iraq. 
 
 Islamic State, an Al Qaeda breakaway faction that adheres to a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, has made a point of destroying pre-Islamic ruins, statues and relics, labeling them as idolatrous -- and reveling in the shock value and outrage caused worldwide by the wanton destruction. The group has posted video online of its adherents taking sledgehammers to fabled sites, such as Iraq’s ancient cities of Hatra and Nimrud, just as it has disseminated images of beheadings and mass killings. 
 
 Islamic State and other Syrian rebel factions are also implicated in the lucrative black-market antiquities trade, authorities say. The clandestine business has boomed with the lawlessness that has taken hold in much of the country since the war broke out in 2011. 
 
 As rebels advanced on many fronts, Syrian authorities have moved many statues and other priceless objects to safety, including items from Palmyra. But not everything can be taken away. 
 
 “We took exceptional measures and moved hundreds of statues, but there are some things that cannot be moved,” said Abdulkarim, who has become a worldwide advocate for saving Syria’s cultural heritage. “The tragedy is how will we move the temples, the graveyards?” 
 
 A U.S.-led coalition has been waging an air war against Islamic State positions in Syria for eight months, but officials in Washington say they do not coordinate with the government of President Bashar Assad. The Obama administration has called for the Syrian leader to step down and has aided opposition elements fighting to topple his government. Whether the U.S.-led coalition would cooperate with Assad’s forces in a bid to save Palmyra remained unclear. 
 
 Bulos is a special correspondent. 
 
 Follow @mcdneville on Twitter for news out of the Middle East. ||||| BEIRUT Islamic State insurgents stormed the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Wednesday, fighting off pro-government forces who withdrew after evacuating most of the civilian population, state television said. 
 
 The capture of Palmyra is the first time the al Qaeda offshoot has taken control of a city directly from the Syrian army and allied forces, which have already lost ground in the northwest and south to other insurgent groups in recent weeks. 
 
 The central city, also known as Tadmur, is built alongside the remains of a oasis civilization whose colonnaded streets, temple and theater have stood for 2,000 years. 
 
 Islamic State has destroyed antiquities and ancient monuments in neighboring Iraq and is being targeted by U.S.-led air strikes in both countries. 
 
 Syria's antiquities chief called on the world to save its ancient monuments and state television said Islamic State fighters were trying to enter the city's historical sites. 
 
 Palmyra is also a strategic military gain, home to modern army installations and situated on a desert highway linking the capital Damascus with Syria's eastern provinces, mostly under insurgent control. 
 
 "Praise God, it has been liberated," said an Islamic State fighter speaking via the Internet from the Palmyra area. He said Islamic State was in control of a hospital in the city which Syrian forces had used as a base before withdrawing. 
 
 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Islamic State had seized almost all of the city. It said it was unclear what had happened to forces stationed at an army outpost on its outskirts or the fate of a major military prison. 
 
 Syria's antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told Reuters earlier on Wednesday that hundreds of statues had been moved to safe locations but called on the Syrian army, opposition and international community to save the site. 
 
 "The fear is for the museum and the large monuments that cannot be moved," he said, "This is the entire world's battle." 
 
 WESTWARD MARCH 
 
 The attack is part of a westward advance by Islamic State that is adding to pressures on the overstretched military and allied militia. The group holds tracts of land in the north and east and is now edging towards the more heavily populated areas along its western flank. 
 
 In the east, U.S. special forces carried out a ground assault on Saturday against Islamic State and killed a militant believed to be in charge of the group's financial operations. 
 
 UNESCO called for called for international efforts to protect Palmyra's population "and safeguard the unique cultural heritage". 
 
 Palmyra's ancient monuments, which lie on the south-western fringe of the modern city, were put on UNESCO's World Heritage in danger list in 2013. The ruins were part of a desert oasis that was one of the most significant cultural centers of the ancient world. 
 
 Islamic State supporters posted pictures on social media showing what they said were gunmen in the streets of Palmyra, which is the location of one of Syria's biggest weapons depots as well as army bases, an airport and a major prison. 
 
 In the northeast, Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led air strikes pressed an attack on Islamic State that has killed at least 170 members of the group this week, a Kurdish official and the Observatory said. U.S-led forces have concentrated their air strikes on Syria's north and east, areas out of government control. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus and Mariam Karouny in Beirut; Editing by Louise Ireland) ||||| BEIRUT, Lebanon — Islamic State militants swept into the historic desert city of Palmyra in central Syria on Wednesday, and by evening were in control of it, residents and the Syrian state news media said, a victory that gives them another strategically important prize five days after the group seized the Iraqi city of Ramadi. 
 
 Palmyra has extra resonance as home to some of the world’s most magnificent remnants of antiquity, as well as the grimmer modern landmark of Tadmur Prison, where Syrian dissidents have languished over the decades. 
 
 But for the fighters on the ground, the city of 50,000 people is significant because it sits among gas fields and astride a network of roads across the country’s central desert. 
 
 As they have swept across Syria and Iraq, Islamic State fighters have destroyed or damaged numerous ancient sites and sculptures, condemning them as idolatry in slickly produced recruitment films, even as they pillage and sell off more portable items to finance their activities. That has raised fears both locally and internationally that Palmyra, a United Nations world heritage site, could also be irrevocably damaged.
– It's the second major victory for the Islamic State within a week, this time in Syria instead of Iraq. ISIS fighters have taken control of the ancient desert city of Palmyra, reports Reuters. The city is important not only as a military target—for one thing, ISIS now controls roads leading to major cities in Syria and Iraq—but because it's home to 2,000-year-old tombs, colonnades, and antiquities at risk of being destroyed. The LA Times describes Palmyra as "one of the world’s most spectacular architectural treasures," while the New York Times calls it "one of the world’s most magnificent remnants of antiquity." An antiquities official in Syria tells Reuters that hundreds of statues were stashed away in safe locations as ISIS advanced on the city, but larger monuments and ruins might be doomed. "This is the entire world's battle," he says, calling for airstrikes by the US-led coalition. That would be tricky, however, notes the Times, because any such airstrikes would benefit Bashar al-Assad—just as going after ISIS in the Iraqi city of Ramadi would require teaming up with militias backed by Iran.