Retaking the town would be a major victory for President Bashar Assad’s government, which has made steady gains in recent months against IS and other insurgents.
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By nightfall, intense fighting was still taking place on the outskirts.
But while the Syrian troops are poised to retake Palmyra, ISIS released a video to prove it still controls the ancient city.
A general view shows a palace complex, which has been recaptured by Syrian government forces, on the western edge of Palmyra in this picture provided by SANA on Thursday.
State-run TV also said the army was advancing inside Palmyra, recapturing several neighborhoods.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was the biggest assault in a three-week campaign by the Syrian army and allied militia fighters to recapture the desert city and open up the road to Islamic State strongholds further east. Many hilltops surrounding the town are now also under Syrian Army control.
A number of terrorists were killed and others fled toward Palmyra after the attack, according to reports.
Along with blowing up priceless archaeological treasures, among the first destructions IS carried out in Palmyra was the demolishing of the town’s infamous Tadmur prison, where thousands of Syrian government opponents had been imprisoned and tortured over the years. It’s expected the Syrian army will liberate Palmyra within the next 48 hours. Those groups have been excluded from a cease-fire brokered by Russian Federation and the USA that began on February 27 and has largely held. The Syrian government said ISIS destroyed two Muslim holy sites: a 500-year-old shrine and a tomb where a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed’s cousin was reportedly buried. Hundreds of U.S. military advisors and trainers now use the base to support Iraqi troops.
Islamic State militants dynamited the temples of Baal Shamin and Bel, as well as funeral towers and a triumphal arch, which had stood for 1,800 years in the oasis city described by the United Nations cultural agency as a crossroads of cultures since the dawn of humanity.
“We vow new operations by jihadists in the West”, he said, according to the Observatory. “The target of the military operation is to get to Palmyra”.
At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter gave no indication that the Iraqis were ready for a full-scale counteroffensive. “Palmyra, under their control, was the loss of a civilization”.
A fearless Russian special forces soldier who was on a Rambo-style one man mission to hunt for ISIS militants died a hero after calling in an airstrike on HIMSELF.
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The IS group is on the back foot in Iraq and Syria, where forces on the ground have been backed by US-led airstrikes against the extremists.
