Islamic State images purport to show destroyed Syrian temple

1	This undated photo released Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015 on a social media site used by Islamic State militants, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows smoke from the detonation of the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra.
2	A resident of the city said the temple was destroyed on Sunday, a month after the group's militants booby-trapped it with explosives.
3	Arabic at bottom reads, "The moment of detonation of the pagan Baalshamin temple in the city of Palmyra."
4	BEIRUT (AP) - The Islamic State group released propaganda images Tuesday that purport to show militants laying explosives in and then blowing up the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra.
5	The images, posted on social media by supporters of the group, showed militants carrying barrels of explosives, and laying them inside the temple.
6	Other smaller wired cans lay around the temple walls and columns.
7	Then an image shows a grey plume of smoke rising above the temple from a distance, and then an image of the temple reduced to a pile of rocks.
8	One caption read: "The complete destruction of the pagan Baalshamin temple."
9	The Associated Press could not independently verify the images.
10	However, they were released like other group propaganda and carried a logo it often used in the city of Palmyra, in Syria's central Homs province.
11	The images also corresponded to prior AP reporting.
12	A resident of Palmyra had told the AP the temple was destroyed on Sunday, a month after the group's militants booby-trapped it with explosives.
13	The U.N. cultural agency UNESCO on Monday called the destruction of the temple a war crime.