Roman amphitheatre in Syria destroyed by Islamic State

Islamic State militants have destroyed a landmark ancient Roman monument and parts of the theatre in Syria's historic town of Palmyra, the government and opposition monitoring groups said.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of Syria's antiquities department, said the militants destroyed the facade of the second-century theatre along with the Tetrapylon, a cubic-shaped Roman monument in the middle of the colonnade road that leads to the theatre.