the 82-year-old khaled assad was captured at the world heritage site. >> for half a further khaled assad was an architect at the palmyra unions. it is here that that it is believed he was beheaded by the islamic state in iraq and the levant. before the syrian conflict, the ancient buildings and amphitheater would draw tourists from around the world. khaled assad would oversee the relics in the site. >> he would live there and die there if need be, and he did pay the ultimate price. >> in better days assad showed foreign dignitaries around the site, including the former french president, but then the war came to pa palmyra. fighting peppered the ancient buildings with bullet holes. after capturing the site from government forces isil arrived. khaled assad stayed in palmyra to remove the museum's valuable contents but was captured and reportedly interrogated. sledge hammers and power drills have been used to ruin priceless artifacts. some pieces super smuggled out of the conflict zone but it's not known how much damage they caused in palmyra. it is believed that they would sell some to fin

and now the beheading of khaled assad, an afte an archaeologists now at the mercy of isil. neave barker, al jazeera. >> new allegations of rape by u.n. peace keepers have emerged. the families of three young women say that the women were raped by members of the militia contingent. >>> well, with more on this, al jazeera's kristen saloomey joins us live from new york. this is the latest in a series of allegations made against peace keepers in the central african republic. tell us more about these new claims? >> well, as you said, south sudan has been criticized heavily with misconduct over the la lethe last three months. we know that the rapes were reported by their families to the mission on the very same day that ban ki-moon fired the head of minusca. and he did so when he fired the head of the mission, ban ki-moon was citing instances of peace keepers killing armed civilians and allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl. the latest allegation in a string of allegations. some 60 total leveled at u.n. peace keepers. so clearly a troubled mission. on this latest incident we don't

on tuesday, militants reportedly beheaded khaled assad, who spent more than 50 years working to preserve palmyra, and hung his body on a column in the ancient city. amnesty international has accused both houthi rebels and the u.s.-backed, saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels of "ruthless and wanton disregard for the safety of civilians." the report calls for the united nations to establish a panel to probe possible war crimes in yemen. meanwhile, another report by unicef says eight children are killed or maimed every day in yemen. the reports came as saudi-led warplanes blasted the houthi-controlled port of hodeida, the main entry point for aid supplies to northern yemen. the white house has hired a transgender woman of color to serve as an outreach and recruitment director, marking what officials are calling the first time the white house has hired an openly transgender staffer. raffi freedman-gurspan is a former policy adviser on racial and economic justice for the national center for transgender equality. she has advocated for transgender migrants to be released from immigrant dete

militants who now control the city consider the relics sacrilegious, so they beheaded khaled al-assad and hung his body on a pole. clarissa ward has reported from inside syria, she joins us now. here is a man who knew syria, knew antiquities, and he also knew the enemy. he knew what isis was all about. yet he stayed. >> reporter: he did, he did stay. and, you know, part of the reason he stayed is because he was so involved in efforts to try to evacuate some of the most precious antiquities before isis made it into the city. they were hoping that they could evacuate them to a safer place, they wouldn't fall into the hand of isis, and that they wouldn't ultimately destroy them and that's a decision that may have potentially cost him his life because shortly after he was captured and brutally executed. >> rose: as gruesome as his death was, there are fatalities every day across syria. >> reporter: and i think that's very easy to forget, charlie, because isis is always going to grab the headlines with this campaign of consistently trying to shock through their brutality. but the reality o