Islamic State (IS) has published images of what appears to be the destruction of the Temple of Baalshamin at the ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria.
Syrian officials and activists said on Sunday that it had been blown up.
The UN's cultural organisation said the deliberate destruction of Syria's cultural heritage was a war crime.
Unesco's director-general, Irina Bokova, accused IS of seeking to "deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity and history".
She also expressed outrage at the beheading last week of Khaled al-Asaad, the retired chief archaeologist at Palmyra, who refused to co-operate with IS.
Pile of rubble
The Temple of Baalshamin was built nearly 2,000 years ago and was considered the second most important structure at Palmyra - the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
Image captionThe oldest parts of the temple, seen here in 2014, dated back to the 1st Century AD
Syria's director of antiquities, Maamoun Abdul Karim, said IS militants had packed the Graeco-Roman temple with large quantities of explosives and detonated them on Sunday, bringing down the inner sanctum, or cella, and surrounding pillars.
Three of the images published online on Tuesday appear to show men placing barrels of explosives connected with detonating cord around the temple's interior and on several exterior columns.
Another image shows a large explosion and plume of smoke, and a fifth shows the aftermath, with piles of rubble where the temple used to be.
The Temple of Baalshamin was built nearly 2,000 years ago and was considered the second most important structure at Palmyra - the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
Image captionThe oldest parts of the temple, seen here in 2014, dated back to the 1st Century AD
Syria's director of antiquities, Maamoun Abdul Karim, said IS militants had packed the Graeco-Roman temple with large quantities of explosives and detonated them on Sunday, bringing down the inner sanctum, or cella, and surrounding pillars.
Three of the images published online on Tuesday appear to show men placing barrels of explosives connected with detonating cord around the temple's interior and on several exterior columns.
Another image shows a large explosion and plume of smoke, and a fifth shows the aftermath, with piles of rubble where the temple used to be.
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