Source: FarsNews
Syrian Army troops with the back up of the Russian and Syrian fighter jets managed to drive ISIL out of the neighborhoods they lost to the terrorists on Saturday, and imposed full control over the historical city of Palmyra (Tadmur) in Eastern Homs.

The army soldiers, backed up by the Russian and Syrian warplanes, pushed ISIL terrorists back from neighborhoods near Palmyra’s entrance, inflicting major casualties on the militants.

ISIL carried out one more large-scale attack on government positions at the Eastern entrance of Palmyra on Saturday night. They took control of the strategic height of al-Tar in the Northern side of Palmyra and the village of al-Ameriyeh Northwest of the city. They further laid siege on the city.

As the ISIL terrorists were entering the Eastern districts of Palmyra, the army troops started to evacuate civilians from the city and transfer them to the T4 region and airport, but after arrival of reinforcements, the government forces carried out crushing attacks on the terrorists and retook some of the lost neighborhoods with the back of the Russian and Syrian aircraft.

The army men, fresh forces and the Syrian and Russian fighter jets inflicted major losses on the militants and took back the village of al-Ameriyeh and the Eastern neighborhoods of Palmyra.

The government forces further targeted ISIL’s movements and gatherings in the wheat silos and al-Tar height, inflicting major losses on them and pushing them back from most of these two regions.

Massdar news reported that the Russian Special Forces with the back up of the Russian fighter jets and choppers played a crucial role in recapturing lost region in the Palmyra operation.

A field source said that the Syrian government forces are fortifying their position in the city to prevent any advance of the ISIL.

The sources added that the Takfiri terrorists try to maintain their position in Palmyra’s outskirt, but the Russian and Syrian warplanes are targeting them continuously.

The source also said that an ISIL convoy of vehicles carrying a number of terrorists that had left al-Sukhnah region for Palmyra was destroyed in the air raids.

A military source also told RIA Novosti that the Syrian army managed to repel ISIL attack on Palmyra, regaining full control over the embattled city.

“Let me repeat that Palmyra is under the control of the Syrian army troops,” the source said, adding that ISIL terrorists are carrying out intense attacks, but they have been repulsed.

On Saturday, the army sent hundreds of fresh forces to the ancient city of Palmyra (Tadmur) to repel ISIL’s large-scale attacks and take back the lands lost in recent days.

Hundreds of forces arrived in the Eastern territories of Homs city to help the army men to fend off ISIL’s continued attacks and then take back lost lands near Tadmur.

ISIL terrorists started large-scale offensives against government positions and managed to capture several gas and oil fields and heights near the city.

Meantime, the army soldiers and National Defense forces with the back up of Russian and Syrian fighter jets warded off ISIL’s attacks in some of the flanks and killed tens of the terrorists.

The Russian Air Force also dispatched a number of choppers to T-4 airbase Northeast of Palmyra to back the ground forces to take back the lands lost to the ISIL and repel terrorists’ attacks.

A field source said that bad weather did not allow the Russian and Syrian aircraft to provide good support for the army men during the Thursday attacks of the ISIL.

“But Syrian bombers and the Russian choppers targeted heavily the movements and gatherings of ISIL near the energy fields,” the source added.

Another source disclosed that Palmyra and its road was under the full control of the army soldiers, adding that ISIL did not have enough fighters to capture Tadmur.

ISIL had gathered a number of forces from other regions for carrying out the attack in Homs, while advances of Ankara-backed militants in Euphrates Shield Operation in al-Bab region in Northern Aleppo and continuation of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces’ Euphrates Rage Operation to liberate Raqqa city have forced ISIL to use its forces in those battlefields in Aleppo and Raqqa provinces.

[According to RT, 4,000 terrorists had regroup to take over Palmyra. However, overnight on Saturday, SAA and allied forces in fierce combat killed up to 300 terrorists and remains in control of Palmyra].

By Tim Anderson
Source: Global Research
As explosions from detonated mines continued in the background a Syrian general confirmed in some detail an ugly truth: Washington and its close allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel backed the ISIS takeover and destruction of Palmyra.

Most of the weapons ISIS used were from the US , with some ammunition from Israel . ISIS had US Hummers, spinning explosive projectiles and military rations from the US , Turkey and Saudi Arabia .

That should not have been a surprise. US officials admitted in 2014 that their allies Turkey , the Saudis and Qatar were backing every single armed group in Syria , in an attempt to overthrow the Syrian Government led by President Bashar al Assad.

Our group of 30 journalists visited liberated Palmyra on 14 April, 18 days after the Syrian Army freed the historic city from a ten month reign of terror. Syrian bulldozers were cleaning debris while Russian sappers continued exploding mines. Three thousand had been cleared and another 30 exploded in the two hours we were there.

We saw the damaged buildings, bomb and mine craters along the roads, and the bizarre steel and wire structure where ‘infidels’ and pro-government people were publicly crucified and beheaded, their bodies drained of blood into what had been a pleasant fountain next to the entrance to the historic sites. We saw the extensive vandalism to the museum, with all human or animal statues beheaded or damaged.

More than 1,600 ISIS terrorists – many from Chechnya , Saudi Arabia , Tunisia and other countries, as well as some Syrians – had converged on Palmyra in May 2015, just as Jabhat al Nusra (al Qaeda in Syria ) led an invasion of NATO-backed Islamists from Turkey into Northern Syria . The ISIS groups invading Palmyra came from the east: from Raqqa, Deir eZorr and Abu Kamal, but also a group from the west.

The US, which since 2014 claimed to be conducting a war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and which had air power and sophisticated surveillance of the region, did nothing to stop the huge ISIS advance on Palmyra.

Again, this should have been unsurprising. Eight months earlier General Martin Dempsey, head of the US military, admitted that his ‘major Arab allies’ were funding ISIS . In response, Senator Lindsay Graham, chair of the US Armed Forces Committee, defended the sponsors of ISIS , saying ‘they fund them because the Free Syrian Army couldn’t fight Assad, they were trying to beat Assad’.

The following month, in October 2014, US Vice President Joe Biden explained that Turkey , Qatar , the UAE and Saudi Arabia ‘were so determined to take down Assad … they poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad … [including] al Nusra and al Qaeda and … this outfit called ISIL’. Biden pretended that Washington was not responsible for the terrorism of his subordinate allies.

US support for terrorist groups forming an ‘Islamic State’ was not an afterthought. It was the key idea from the beginning.

In August 2012, before ISIS came across to Syria from Iraq, US intelligence (DIA) reported that ‘The Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI [al Qaeda in Iraq, later ISI and then ISIS] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria … there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality [an ‘Islamic State’] in eastern Syria … and this is exactly what the supporting powers [the US, other western countries, the Gulf monarchies and Turkey] to the [Syrian] opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.’

More than 200 Syrian soldiers died defending Palmyra in May 2015, and another 150 died retaking that historic and strategic city, in March 2016. They lost their lives defending their country.

The water supply in Palmyra was destroyed, historic sites and treasures damaged, and soldiers and many other innocents were slaughtered, all by US-backed terrorists.

Whatever else people may or may not understand about the Syrian conflict, they should be clear that the US ‘war on terrorism’ in Syria and Iraq is a fraud. Directly or indirectly, Washington remains the key supporter of ISIS, al Nusra and the rest.

The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Prof. Tim Anderson, Global Research, 2016

Source: RT
The Syrian Army is unearthing a mass grave consisting of at least 40 corpses, many of them women and children. They were butchered by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in the recently liberated ancient city of Palmyra.

The grave was discovered by engineers and “popular defense forces” in the Masakin al-Jahizia neighborhood of the city, which lies only 500 meters from the ancient ruins, SANA reports.

So far the army has recovered 25 corpses. Among those killed by IS were three children and five females. As the excavation proceeded, 15 more corpses were unearthed – all of them women and children.

Initial examination of the bodies revealed that some of the victims had been beheaded while other had been brutally tortured before their deaths.

The army continues to excavate the mass grave, fearing that more bodies may be found.

Engineering units continue their search for landmines and explosives as thousands were hidden by the jihadists before they were driven out of the city with the help of the Russian forces working with the Syrian Army.

Russian combat engineers arrived in Palmyra on Thursday with special robotic units to offer their expertise in detecting and dismantling mines in an area comprising over 180 hectares (445 acres), to save the UNESCO world heritage site, and help locals to return safely.

“At least 3,000 explosive devices were installed in the city,” the sapper explained to RT. He said IS created an almost invisible interconnected network, partially hidden under hard paved roads, which could blow up the entire city.

A strategically important location, Palmyra was seized by IS jihadists in May 2015. That month, IS reportedly slaughtered 400 people, mostly women and children. At the time, Reuters reported that a video posted by IS’ supporters showed the militants entering governmental buildings in search of Syrian soldiers. They were also seen pulling down pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his father, Hafez Assad.

Source: SANA
Homs – A military source announced on Sunday that the army units, in cooperation with the popular defense groups, have established full control over Palmyra city-a UNESCO world heritage site- in the eastern countryside of Homs province.

“Palmyra city is now fully cleared of ISIS terrorists after the army established complete control over all its parts, including the archeological site and the airport,” the source said in a statement to SANA.

The army’s engineering units have immediately embarked on combing the city, finding and dismantling hundreds of bombs and explosive devices planted by ISIS terrorists between the ancient relics, houses and orchards, the source mentioned.

It confirmed that hundreds of terrorists were killed in the course of the battles that started on March 7th, noting that the remaining terrorists fled eastward deep into al-Badiya (desert).

Sources on the ground estimated the number of ISIS terrorists killed in the battles at 450, pointing out that those included foreign mercenaries who had earlier infiltrated Palmyra city from the directions of Raqqa, Deir Ezzor and the Iraqi borders.

The military source went on saying that the army units and the popular defense groups have hunted down ISIS terrorists on the outskirts of Palmyra city and the surrounding orchards, inflicting heavy losses upon them.

The source added that the Syrian and Russian Air Forces carried out sorties targeting the remaining ISIS terrorists on the axes of Palmyra/al-Sukhneh, Palmyra/al-Mahatta al-Thaletha, Palmyra /Tweinan and al-Rasafa/al-Tabaqa.

Tens of vehicles, including armored ones, were destroyed in the airstrikes, which also left dozens of the fleeing terrorists dead or wounded, according to the source.

Later, Army units established control over points 850 and 849 in the direction of al- Hazem al-Thani and Point 876 in the direction of al-Rmeileh Mountain to the north west of al-Qariyatain in the south eastern countryside of Homs, according to a military source.

The source added that engineering units dismantled a number of explosive devices which ISIS terrorists planted earlier in the area.

Another army unit foiled an infiltration attempt by ISIS terrorists in the direction of Tolol Nizami in the area surrounding Shaer Field in the eastern countryside of Homs, killing many terrorists, injuring many others and destroying their weapons and ammunition.

Source: Sputnik
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday said that the liberation of Syria’s Palmyra from the Islamic State militants is a happy event, important for the preservation of cultural values of the city, the United Nations said.

The Syrian army confirmed Sunday that it had liberated the historic city of Palmyra from the Islamic State terrorist group with support of national aviation and Russian Aerospace Forces.

“We are encouraged and fortunate that the Syrian Government Forces have been able to retrieve, defeat ISIS from Palmyra and are now able to preserve and protect these human common cultural assets. And I am also encouraged by their announcement that they will try to not preserve or protect, but trying to restore. I hope they will be able to do that,” the UN said in a read-out statement published on its website.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed hope that international experts would be able to start working on preservation and reconstruction of Palmyra right after the end of demining operations.

Palmyra and its historic ruins have been under ISIL control since May 2015. The jihadist group, which is outlawed in many countries, including Russia and the United States, has since destroyed part of the ruins, which are a designated UNESCO World Heritage site.

By Leith Fadel
Source: Al-Masdar News
It has been nearly 10 months since the government forces have had a presence inside of Palmyra (Tadmur); however, this changed on Friday, as several units from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) broke-through the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham’s (ISIS) defenses and reentered this ancient desert city in the Homs Governorate.

[Amid great sacrifices the SAA and the Axis of Resistance are advancing and ridding Syria of terrorists].

According to an Al-Masdar field correspondent, the Syrian Arab Army’s “Tiger Forces – backed by the Desert Hawks, Hezbollah, and the Syrian Marines – entered Palmyra through its southern gates after seizing much of the Palmyra Orchards from the ISIS terrorists.

The source added that the Syrian Armed Forces and their allies have now reached the Palmyra Prison that is located in the southeastern sector of the city; it was one of the first sites captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham on May 21st, 2015.

Fierce clashes are still ongoing inside and outside the city, as the Syrian Armed Forces continue their large-scale offensive to liberate Palmyra.