By Leith Fadel
Source: Al-Masdar News
At approximately 11:45 P.M. (Damascus Time) on Tuesday night, the Syrian Arab Army’s “Tiger Forces” – backed by Hezbollah, the Desert Hawks Brigade, Liwaa Imam ‘Ali (Iraqi paramilitary), and the Syrian Marines – imposed full control over the Palmyra (Tadmur) Triangle after advancing east from Jabal Hiyyal. According to a battlefield correspondent embedded in the Palmyra countryside, the Syrian Armed Forces and their allies liberated this strategic area after a fierce battle with the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham tonight. The source added that the Syrian Armed Forces and their allies suffered minimal casualties, while the ISIS terrorists lost an estimated 20-30 combatants before their positions were overran by the government forces.

With the Palmyra Triangle under their control, the Syrian Armed Forces are now within striking distance of Palmyra; this is also the closest that the government forces have been to this city since their complete withdrawal on May 21st, 2015. Meanwhile, north of the Palmyra Triangle, the Tiger Forces and Desert Hawks are pressing ISIS’ defenses at Jabal Al-Tar; they are reportedly close to capturing this important mountaintop in western Palmyra.

Source: South Front
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies are continuing to clash against ISIS in Southeastern Aleppo. On Wednesday, the pro-government forces seized the villages of Shabib, Kharbeel, ‘Akeel, Al-Qalay’at, and Sirada in Khanasser Plains expanding a buffer zone along the strategic supply route to Aleppo.

At least 26 members of al Nusra and Jund al-Aqsa have been killed in a series of their failed offensives in Tal al-Eiss. However, there are no indications that militants will cut their attempt to counter-attack in the area.

Syrian and Russian warplanes intensified air raids on ISIS positions at Palmyra. According to reports, the aerial operation focused on as-Sawwanah and al-Bayarat areas near the city. The Syrian artillery units also pounded the militants’ positions in the oil-rich region of Jezl.

Meanwhile, ISIS launched offensive in the Eastern and Southeastern parts of Homs province attacking the loyalists’ strongholds in al-Maqale’a (quarries), Thaniyeh al-Rajmeh and Dhuhour al-Hayyal. The SAA repel these attacks.

The SAA launched an offensive on an ISIS stronghold near the town of Quaryatayn. Clashes are ongoing there.

On Mar.9, there reportedly were sporadic clashes between the civilians and ISIS militants in the city of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed Caliphate’s capital in Northeastern Syria. ISIS answered with setting up additional checkpoints and a new wave of arrests across the city. Earlier there have been a series of reports that some 200 militants switched sides and seized part of the city of Raqqa.

One has to consider the distinctive possibility such reports represent an effort by local Sunni tribes to establish a truce with at least one of the two main forces marching in the direction of Raqqa: the Syrian Arab Army or the Kurdish militias. Such developments represent the fact that ISIS has started to lose the influence even in the formally controlled territories of Syria.

Source: RT News
The Russian military has launched cruise missiles against Islamic State positions in Syria from both the Mediterranean and Caspian seas, one of which killed over 600 terrorists in the Deir Ex-Zor [Deir Ezzor] Province, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has said.

“On November 20, the warships of the Caspian Fleet launched 18 cruise missiles at seven targets in the provinces of Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo. All targets were hit successfully,” he reported to President Vladimir Putin.

Overall, there are 10 warships taking part in the operation, six of which are in the Mediterranean.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) have been suffering huge losses as a result of the Russian offensive, Shoigu said, adding that data on the ground shows that the flow of terrorists arriving in Syria has decreased, while more and more militants are fleeing the warzone to head north and south-west.

Over the past four days, Russian air forces have conducted 522 sorties, deploying more than 100 cruise missiles and 1,400 tons of bombs of various types, the minister stated.

He added that a strike on a target in Deir ez-Zor utilizing multiple cruise missiles had killed more than 600 militants.

Shoigu stressed that the number of aircraft taking part in the operation has been doubled, and now consists of 69 jets conducting 143 sorties on a daily basis.

The minister pointed out that Russia is focused on destroying the terrorists’ economic base, having targeted 15 oil storage and refinery facilities as well as 525 oil trucks.

“We stopped supplies of 60,000 tons of oil per day to the black market and terrorists are losing $1.5 million daily,” Shoigu said.

Russia has also destroyed 23 jihadists training camps, 19 plants producing explosives, 47 ammunition depots, as well as many other targets, according to the minister.

In addition, Russia’s air campaign has provided significant support for Syrian government troops near Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia and Palmyra, he noted.

He also added that the Russian military has begun cooperating with its French counterparts, as ordered by President Putin.

The Defense Ministry has published a video showing Russian servicemen at the Khmeimim airbase in Syria writing ‘For our people’ and ‘For Paris’ on bombs that were later dropped on the terrorists.

“We have a lot of evidence that Russian airstrikes are effective,” Syrian Brigadier General Ali Maihub told Interfax.

“Russian mass airstrikes did irreparable damage to international terrorist organizations in Syria, disrupted their administration and financing systems and destroyed their bases and depots,” he added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov still maintains that Russia will not engage in a ground operation against the IS in Syria.

“There has been no discussion about a ground operation and there is still no discussion,” Peskov told reporters.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry have discussed in a phone conversation the need for a joint effort to combat Islamic State in Syria, as well as the necessity of launching talks between Damascus and the Syrian opposition, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A US official said on Friday that Russia has given the US advance notice before airstrikes at least three times since the attacks in Paris, Reuters reports.

By Alex Ray
Source: Between Deserts WordPress
“Traveling to Palmyra this week was a great break from Damascus and a welcome refresher on the amazing history of the region. Although this time we had the same driver (Abu Adnan) in Palmyra, nothing else was the same. It was hot dusty and dry, and the tourism industry of the place was suffering hugely. The hotel we stayed in (Tetraplyon) was completely empty and the ruins of Palmyra were host to only 20 or so tourists.” – My diary entry for the 24th April 2011, Palmyra, Syria.

Tears fell for Palmyra this week as ISIS beheaded its long-time curator Khaled al-Asaad and destroyed one of its most famous Roman-era monuments. The rose-coloured stone – which romanced so many visitors – has been obliterated. The world owes a debt to all who have died in defence of Syria and Iraq’s heritage. Those tears were not only for them, for the lost treasures of our collective past and for the future of the region.

Tony Abbot will use the heartbreaking news from Palmyra to justify expanding Australia’s ISIS bombing campaign into Syria. Yet those grieving over the destruction of the region’s heritage are asking what exactly this campaign is targeting or achieving?

In an estimated 6000 bombing runs against ISIS targets since August 2014, the U.S-led coalition seems to have accomplished little. Their most lauded achievement was the targeted killing of an upper level ex-Ba’athist military planner in Syria earlier this year, in an operation requiring detailed intelligence.

Yet their failure to foresee or hamper ISIS simultaneous advances into Ramadi and Palmyra earlier this year was telling. Why did they do nothing in response to columns of heavily armed ISIS militants rolling through flat desert towards both major towns?

U.S military sources tried to blame the weather, saying that the most advanced military in the world could do nothing because there was dust in the air over Ramadi that morning. No explanation has emerged regarding Palmyra.

Some have tried to explain the ‘moderate’ pace of the campaign against ISIS as being deliberate and in accordance with the language used. Degrade and destroy we are told, is a military description of a long-term strategy of chipping away at a force’s capacity.

Yet why a ‘slow and steady’ strategy was chosen has never been explained. Even more incredible is the lack of pressure the US has put on Turkey and its Gulf allies to do anything about ISIS or the extremist groups they actually support.

The meek campaign against ISIS is not an anomaly in the love-hate relations between western powers and the extremist opposition militia in Syria. Recent months have seen an escalation in attempts to present Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria) and Ahrar as-Sham as acceptable ‘moderate Islamist’ opposition to the secular Syrian government.

Al Jazeera and the Washington Post have both hosted fireside chats with the groups’ leaders, welcoming their promises to not behead anyone without a beard. Both groups also receive support (training and weapons) from Turkish, U.S, British, Jordanian and Israeli forces in the northern and southern fronts in Syria.

Yet the concrete difference between ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra or Ahrar as-Sham is next to none. They favour different styles of propaganda. ISIS plays the hardliner while through ‘moderation’ Jabhat al-Nusra can now carry out summary executions while a U.K – influenced NGO stands by.

The purely political decision to involve Australia militarily in another war-torn country of the Middle East will simply risk further entanglement in the region. The lack of informed political opposition to such a move is telling of Australian leaders’ ignorance to the broader implications of what is taking place in the region. The only response has come from the leader of the Australian Greens, who seems to suggest Australia should also be targeting the Syrian Government.

In the meantime we are lending an unnecessary hand in the disjointed ‘have your revolution and fight terror too’ strategy of the West, the Gulf and Turkey, which is tearing its way through the region’s infrastructure, history, culture and identity.

Source: Press TV

Syrian government forces have made further military progress in its bid to recapture the ancient city of Palmyra, reopening a major route for oil and gas supply to the capital Damascus.

The al-Watan daily reported on Monday that the army has intensified its operations against the Takfiri ISIL group in Palmyra and its vicinity, making “tangible progress” in the area of west Biyarat.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed the army’s progress in the area, saying army forces and pro-government fighters clashed with ISIL Takfiris on the road connecting the city of Homs and Palmyra.

“This weekend, the regime ousted IS jihadists from al-Biyarat and is now about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Palmyra,” the director of the UK-based group, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.

He added that the situation on the ground suggests that Syrian government forces are preparing to liberate the ancient city.

Abdel Rahman said retaking the west Biyarat area by the army allows the Syrian government to “secure a transport route for oil from the Jazal field to other Syrian cities.

Jazal field, which lies about 20 kilometers northwest of Palmyra, was retaken from ISIL last week.

World heritage site

The UK-based group said on Sunday that the Takfiri group had planted explosives at the site of the Roman ruins in Palmyra. It speculated that the mines had been laid either “to blow up the ruins or to prevent” Syrian forces from advancing into the town.

UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, has announced that the demolition of the world heritage site would be an “enormous loss to humanity.”

ISIL forces occupied the ancient city of Palmyra on May 21, promptly raising fears that the terrorists would once more destroy historic world heritage sites and artifacts there, like they did months ago in the city of Mosul, Iraq.

XLS/KA/HMV

Source: Al Alam

ISIS terrorist have executed at least 400 mostly women and children in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra.

Eye-witnesses have reported the streets are strewn with bodies on the same day photographs of captured Syrian soldiers have emerged.

It follows the killing of nearly 300 pro-government troops two days after they captured the city, now symbolized by a black ISIS flag flying above an ancient citadel.

Release pictures by ISIS Claiming caputures of syrian soldiers in Palmyra

ISIS has also strengthened its position in neighboring Iraq with terrorist fighters killing more than 500 people when they captured the city of Ramadi, last week, Daily Mail reports.

Syrian state television announced the most recent massacre, quoting residents inside the city, which is known as Tadmur in Arabic.

‘The terrorists have killed more than 400 people… and mutilated their bodies, under the pretext that they cooperated with the government and did not follow orders,’ Syria’s state news agency said.

Governor Talal Barazi of the central province of Homs, which includes Palmyra, said that ISIS members have ‘committed mass massacres in the city of Palmyra’ since its capture.

He said ISIS fighters took civilians, including women, to unknown destinations.

But he said retaliation was imminent, adding: ‘there is planning, God willing, for a military action in the surroundings of Palmyra’.