Syrian troops backed by Russian air support are fighting their way into the Islamic State-held city of Palmyra, in their biggest offensive yet against the jihadist caliphate.
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Thursday’s reported advance comes a day after forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad captured a strategic hilltop on Palmyra’s outskirts, according to state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group.
Dozens of raids conducted by Syrian government and Russian planes have hit the modern city of Palmyra which sits very close to the ancient Unesco archaeological world heritage site.
ISIS – also known as Daesh – regards the capture of the Syrian city of Palmyra, a Unesco World Heritage site, as one of its most significant territorial gains. Most residents left Palmyra when ISIS took over the city in May 2015, but those who remained have now largely fled to the cities of Raqqa or Deir Ezzor amid merciless airstrikes.
“While performing a special task to direct Russian air strikes onto terrorist targets, a Russian special forces officer was killed”, Interfax quoted a source at Russia’s Khmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province as saying. AAn Iraqi military spokesman says the long-awaited military operation to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants “has begun”.
By summer, the Islamic extremist group had blown up the almost 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin.
Government soldiers gather at the entrance of Palmyra in central Syria.
“The regime will take revenge on the city – they are afraid of that”, said Mohamed Alkhateb, a spokesperson for the opposition group Palmyra Coordination.
Besides blowing up priceless archaeological treasures, IS demolished the town’s infamous Tadmur prison, where thousands of Syrian government opponents had been imprisoned and tortured over the years. “There is no USA military or Coalition cooperation with either the Assad government nor the Russians”.
“We announced several months ago that we had begun shaping operations for the eventual liberation of Mosul”, Warren said.
It was launched from the Makhmour area where Iraqi troops have been deployed in recent weeks.
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In Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Thursday for countries to boost efforts to fight IS in Syria, Iraq and beyond in the wake of this week’s deadly attacks in Brussels.
