India's moidam royal burial mounds are its latest World Heritage Site

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India's moidam royal burial mounds are its latest World Heritage Site

2024-07-26 16:57 Last Updated At：17:00

NEW DELHI (AP) — The Charaideo Moidam royal burial complex and shrines, built by northeast India's Ahom dynasty, has been inscribed as a new World Heritage Site, the United Nations' cultural agency said on Friday.

UNESCO experts, who are deliberating on a list of sites nominated for the World Heritage Site tag, announced the decision in Indian capital New Delhi, where they are holding their 46th session.

The Charaideo Moidams, located in Assam state, are a mound burial system that served as a resting place for Ahom kings and queens. They were constructed by providing an earth cover over a hollow vault made of bricks, stone or earth.

The designated site contains 90 modiams of different sizes, which were created over a period of 600 years, and include other cultural features like ceremonial pathways and bodies of water, said a spokesperson from ICOMOS, the advisory body of the World Heritage Committee.

“The moidams are an exceptional example of an Ahom necropolis that represents funeral traditions and associated beliefs in a tangible way,” they added.

The Ahom clan established their capital in different parts of the Brahmaputra River Valley between the 12th to 18th century, after migrating from China, according to the U.N. cultural agency's website. They established the first capital at the Patkai hills in eastern India and named it Charaideo, which means “a dazzling city above the mountain” in their language. Even though the clan moved across cities, the burial site they built was seen as the most sacred place for the departed souls of the royals.

Experts say the shrines showcase the architecture and expertise of Assam's masons, comparing them to the royal tombs of China and the pyramids of the Egyptian Pharaohs.

The site has the largest concentration of these vaulted mound burials, according to UNESCO, and reflects the sculpted landscape of the surrounding hills.

India is now home to 43 World Heritage Sites.

Other sites inscribed on Friday included the Colonies of the Moravian Church in Germany, the U.S. and U.K.; the Umm Al-Jimal in Jordan and the Badain Jaran Desert in China.

The committee also inscribed the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, in the archeological site of Tell Umm Amer in the Gaza Strip, on both the World Heritage List and on the List of World Heritage in Danger. It said the decision recognized the site's value and the need to protect it given threats posed by the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Death toll in violence on Syrian coast rises to more than 1,000, war monitor says

2025-03-09 05:09 Last Updated At：05:11

BEIRUT (AP) — The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, including nearly 750 civilians, a war monitoring group said Saturday, making it one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence since Syria’s conflict began 14 years ago.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in addition to 745 civilians, 125 members of the government security forces and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with deposed President Bashar Assad were killed.

The observatory also said that electricity and drinking water were cut off in large areas around the coastal city of Latakia and many bakeries shut down.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

BEIRUT (AP) — The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 600, a war monitoring group said Saturday, making it one of the deadliest acts of violence since Syria’s conflict began 14 years ago.

The clashes, which erupted Thursday, marked a major escalation in the challenge to the new government in Damascus, three months after insurgents took authority after removing Assad from power.

The government has said that they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad's forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence.

The revenge killings that started Friday by Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect are a major blow to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the overthrow of the former government. Alawites made up a large part of Assad’s support base for decades.

Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke to The Associated Press about killings during which gunmen shot Alawites, the majority of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas, two residents of Syria’s coastal region told the AP from their hideouts.

They asked that their names not be made public out of fear of being killed by gunmen, adding that thousands of people have fled to nearby mountains for safety.

Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, said bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, and nobody was able to collect them. One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors killed Friday at close range.

Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbors hours after the violence broke out Friday, said that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes.

Sheha called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad's government. Other residents said the gunmen included foreign fighters, and militants from neighboring villages and towns.

“It was very very bad. Bodies were on the streets,” as he was fleeing, Sheha said, speaking by phone from nearly 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from the city. He said the gunmen were gathering less than 100 meters from his apartment building, firing randomly at homes and residents and in at least one incident he knows of, asked residents for their IDs to check their religion and their sect before killing them. He said the gunmen also burned some homes and stole cars and robbed homes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said that 428 Alawites have been killed in revenge attacks in addition to 120 pro-Assad fighters and 89 from security forces. The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said that revenge killings stopped early Saturday.

“This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said about the killings of Alawite civilians.

The previous figure given by the group was more than 200 dead. No official figures have been released.

A funeral was held Saturday afternoon for four Syrian security force members in the northwestern village of Al-Janoudiya after they were killed in the clashes along Syria's coast. Scores of people attended the funeral.

Syria’s state news agency quoted an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying that government forces have regained control of much of the areas from Assad loyalists. It added that authorities have closed all roads leading to the coastal region “to prevent violations and gradually restore stability.”

On Saturday morning, the bodies of 31 people killed in revenge attacks the day before in the central village of Tuwaym were laid to rest in a mass grave, residents said. Those killed included nine children and four women, the residents said, sending the AP photos of the bodies draped in white cloth as they were lined in the mass grave.

Lebanese legislator Haidar Nasser, who holds one of the two seats allocated to the Alawite sect in parliament, said that people were fleeing from Syria for safety in Lebanon. He said he didn't have exact numbers.

Nasser said that many people were sheltering at the Russian air base in Hmeimim, Syria, adding that the international community should protect Alawites who are Syrian citizens loyal to their country. He said that since Assad’s fall, many Alawites were fired from their jobs and some former soldiers who reconciled with the new authorities were killed.

Under Assad, Alawites held top posts in the army and security agencies. The new government has blamed his loyalists for attacks against the country’s new security forces over the past several weeks.

The most recent clashes started when government forces tried to detain a wanted person near the coastal city of Jableh, and were ambushed by Assad loyalists, according to the Observatory.

Omar Albam contributed to this report from Al-Janoudiya, Syria.