CRAC

Crac de Chevaliers, one of the world’s best-preserved Crusader castles, was littered with rubble when the government seized it from rebels in 2014.

Isabelle Ezanno, a doctor in Crac’h in the Morbihan, Brittany, described the Parisian exodus as “irresponsible”.

The vigilantes belong to the Regional Council of Community Authorities, a split-off from a decades-old force known as the CRAC.

In Syria alone, the Great Mosque and the Citadel in Aleppo, the castle of every child's imagination at Crac des Chevaliers, and the ancient city of Bosra have been damaged or destroyed.

Four of these sites, including Palmyra and the Crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers, have been used for military purposes, the United Nations says.