Turkish air strikes 'damage ancient Afrin temple'
Turkish air strikes have seriously damaged an ancient temple in Syria's Kurdish-held Afrin region, the Syrian government and a monitoring group say.
Pictures circulated online showed what appeared to be a crater in the centre of the Ain Dara site and rubble where there used to be carved basalt lions.
The Neo-Hittite temple was built by the Arameans in the first millennium BC.
Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels launched an offensive to push a Kurdish militia out of Afrin nine days ago.
About 60% of the temple of Ain Dara, which is 10km (6 miles) south of the city of Afrin, was destroyed on Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory.
Syria's antiquities department, a government agency, denounced the attack, saying it "reflects the hatred and barbarism of the Turkish regime against the Syrian identity and against the past, present and future of the Syrian people".
Former antiquities chief Maamoun Abdul Karim told AFP news agency that the temple was known for its "exceptional" colossal basalt lions.
source and further reading: BBC News
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road