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IS Behead Civilians As '400 Killed In Palmyra'

IS fighters have raised their flag over an ancient citadel in Palmyra - amid reports they have killed hundreds of women and children.

An image of a black flag flying over a centuries-old, Islamic-era castle was posted online by the group's supporters.

It emerged as Syrian state television reported that 400 civilians in Palmyra - mostly women and children - had been killed by IS fighters.

Hundreds of bodies were reportedly scattered in the streets of the city after it was seized by the ultra hardline group. Some had been beheaded.

Dozens of those killed were state employees, including the head of the nursing department at the hospital and all her family members, said Syria's state news agency.

IS supporters have posted videos on the Internet they say show fighters going room to room in government buildings searching for government troops.

They can be seen pulling down pictures of President Bashar al-Assad and his father. Palmyra has a population of about 50,000 people.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that some people were beheaded in the town since it fell.

The deaths come as Lord Dannatt, former head of the Army, called on the Government to "think the previously unthinkable" and consider sending ground troops to combat IS in Syria and Iraq.

He told a newspaper: "What I am calling for today is for a public and political debate to begin immediately, so that arguments for and against the deployment of Western ground forces can be aired."

Meanwhile, the US Defence Secretary has claimed that Islamic State's recent takeover of Ramadi suggests that Iraqi forces have lost the "will to fight".

Ash Carter told CNN that the country's troops had vastly outnumbered advancing IS militants in the central Iraqi city, yet had pulled back.

Since Wednesday’s takeover of the 2,000-year-old site, concerns have been rife that IS would destroy priceless temples, tombs and colonnades located in the town's south.

IS has already broken into the museum of Palmyra and smashed a statue in the foyer, although many precious artefacts have been moved to safety, according to a Syrian official.

Larger items - such as two mummies and carvings from the nearby tombs - may not have been moved due to their size, say experts.

The castle where the flag has been hoisted is likely to be protected from ruin as it dates back to an Islamic civilization - according to Al-Azm, a former Syrian antiquities official and currently a professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio.

Previously, IS members have wiped out pre-Islamic heritage sites such as the ancient cities of Hatra and Ninevah in Iraq - stating they promote idolatry. Many relics have been sold on the black market as part of a lucrative business, which has seen 6,300 artefacts smuggled out of Syria in the last four years.

In recent days, the coalition attacked an IS position near Palmyra, which goes by the modern name Tadmur, destroying six anti-aircraft artillery systems and an artillery piece.

It is the first such reported attack in the central province of Homs, but it comes a "little too late", said Mr Amr Al-Azm, especially give the poor ground resistance to IS.

Lord Dannatt, said he felt air strikes had "failed" to stop the advance of the extremist organisation and urged Parliament to debate deploying up to 5,000 infantry soldiers.

In the Mail on Sunday, he said: "In light of this terrifying scenario, how much longer can Britain and the US continue to show such a lack of commitment to defeating IS militarily? Their default option of air strikes and limited assistance to indigenous forces has failed thus far.

"We have now reached a point when we must think the previously unthinkable and consider that British troops, acting as part of an international coalition, may be required to mount a ground campaign in Iraq and Syria.

"I am no gung-ho general who says 'just send the boys in and don't worry about the body bags', far from it, but faced with such a lethal and uncompromising enemy as IS - and with the lack of political and diplomatic solutions at our disposal - we can no longer rule out 'boots on the ground'."

Former defence secretary Liam Fox told Sky News' Murnaghan programme that a ground offensive would be "out of the question" because the US would have to take the lead and President Obama would be unwilling to commit to such an operation towards the end of his presidency.

The Islamic State group holds a large stretch of territory across Syria and Iraq as it tries to set up its own self-proclaimed religious 'caliphate'.