Source: nsnbc International
The Syrian Arab Army and Shabiba self-defense forces were defeated by ISIL brigades at the strategically important town and World Heritage Site of Palmyra. Control over Palmyra enables control over, or the obstruction of traffic between the towns and provinces of Damascus and Homs. Large parts of the residents and displaced have been evacuated from the city, enabling the Syrian Air Force to target ISIL positions.

Units of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Shabiba self-defense forces withdrew from the city of Palmyra on Wednesday after an initial victory over Islamic State a.k.a. ISIS / ISIL brigades last week. Shabiba units facilitated the evacuation of large swaps of Palmyra’s population before the withdrawal. Residents of the town housed large numbers of displaced from the region around Palmyra.

The city is located some 240 km from the capital Damascus. Control over the city of Palmyra and the mountains in the surrounding region facilitates control over traffic between the cities and provinces of Damascus and Homs. The fall of Palmyra into the hands of ISIL is likely to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Syria and poses a significant risk to the capital Damascus.

SAA and Shabiba units are reportedly attempting to maintain control over the Damascus Homs road in the region. UNESCO warns that the fall of the ancient ruins at Palmyra, a World Heritage Site, poses a threat to the invaluable archaeological sites of outstanding value. SAA forces have reportedly succeeded at removing some of the most vulnerable bas-reliefs.

ISIL is notorious for either destroying any sites predating Islam and/or for selling the antiquities on the black market.

It is uncertain to what degree the SAA and Shabiba’s withdrawal is of tactical nature. The Syrian Air Force has gained a strategic advantage after the evacuation of large swaps of Palmyra’s residents and the displaced families who had found refuge in the city. Air Force strikes are currently concentrating at the northeastern part of the city where there are the greatest concentrations of ISIL battalions.

Certain “opportunistic” politicians in western countries used UNESCO’s statement to renew calls for an intervention. Approximately 70 % of ISIL fighters in Syria are mercenaries and volunteers from foreign nations. The spread of ISIL throughout Syria and Iraq originated predominantly from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Heavy fighting was also reported from Qalamoun near the Lebanese border, where the SAA, Shabiba and Hezbollah are combating Jabhat al-Nusrah battalions.

CH/L – nsnbc 21.05.2015

Source: SANA
Homs – Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi on Sunday visited a military outpost in the northwestern outskirts of Palmyra city in Homs province.

The Governor said that the Army and Armed Forces managed to protect Palmyra and its archeological sites from ISIS terrorists who had attempted to infiltrate them, asserting that the Governorate and the authorities in Palmyra are working hard to provide all the needs of citizens that were displaced by ISIS from al-Ameriye village.

Al-Barazi saluted the people of Palmyra who stood alongside the army to defend their city from terrorism.

Earlier on Sunday, army units assisted by locals established full control over the radio tower, the hills overlooking Palmyra city, archeological sites, and the city’s western entrance, eliminating scores of terrorists.

Army units are currently canvassing al-Ameriye village and dismantling the explosives planted by terrorists there. Engineering units also dismantled 20 explsoive devices planted by terrorists at the entrance of Palmyra and on the road between it and Homs.

The Governor asserted that the archeological sites in Palmyra are secured and that the road between Homs and Palmyra is secured completely.

Terrorists from ISIS had infiltrated across al-Badiye desert and attacked the town of al-Sekhne and al-Ameriye village, committing a massacre in that village which claimed the life of 30 people, most of them children, women, and elderly people.

Hazem al-Sabbagh

Source: The Arab Source
The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) launched another powerful assault on the defensive barriers of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra (Tadmur), attempting to infiltrate past the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) frontline defenses at the northern, southern, and western flanks on Sunday morning.

On Saturday morning, ISIS militants attacked the Syrian Armed Forces defensive barriers at the Palmyra National Hospital, where they attempted to break-through the 18th Tank Battalion’s fortifications after they took control of the strategic Al-‘Amuriyah Housing District to the north of this city in the eastern part of the Homs Governorate.

In addition to their attack on the Palmyra National Hospital, ISIS was able to briefly infiltrate into the northern sector of the city, capturing three residential building blocks after fierce clashes with the SAA’s 18th Battalion at the outskirts of Palmyra around 10 A.M. Damascus Time.

However, the SAA’s 18th Battalion – in coordination with the National Defense Forces (NDF) and Liwaa Suqour Al-Sahra (Desert Falcons Brigade) – launched a counter-assault on the militants from ISIS at Mount Qassoun located east of the city, resulting in the recapture of the strategic Radio and Television Communication Hill, along with the Palmyra Castle after killing over 40 enemy combatants.

Following their recapture of Mount Qassoun, the Syrian Armed Forces attacked the combatants from ISIS at the ancient aqueducts, where they were able to take full control of this area, including the Palmyra Dam to the west, forcing the militants to withdrawal from the western flank.

According to a military source from Liwaa Suqour Al-Sahra, the Syrian Armed Forces successfully forced ISIS to pull out of the northern sector of Palmyra; this has allowed for the SAA’s 18th Battalion to secure all defensive barriers around this ancient city.

Fierce firefights were also reported at the Al-Hayl and Al-Arak Oil Fields, as the Syrian Armed Forces and ISIS exchange rounds of gunfire and mortar shells for control of this area.

Source: Middle East Eye
The global community must move quickly to save the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, which is under assault by the Islamic State group, Syria’s director of antiquities told AFP Thursday.

The world “must mobilise before, not after, the destruction of the artefacts” at the site, Mamoun Abdulkarim said by phone.

“If IS enters Palmyra, it will be destroyed and it will be an international catastrophe. You can hide the objects, but how can you save ancient architecture?” he added.

After clashes between IS militant and government troops on Wednesday, IS reportedly launched a two-pronged offensive on Thursday to take the UNESCO world heritage site.

Government troops were said to be shelling the site to thwart the group’s advance.

The militants are now said to be just kilometres away from the town, one of the last government strongholds in the area.

Tareq, a resident of Palmyra who spoke to MEE by phone, said the battles in the town were intensifying.

“We are afraid. It’s a real war. We didn’t sleep at all last night. We can’t go out of the house and we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“There are snipers outside. The war is on.”

Umar Hamza, a citizen journalist inside Palmyra, also told US-based news site, Syria Direct that: “IS took control of the town of al-Amiriya [located approximately 2km north of Palmyra] in order to reach the weapons depots that stretch from the west of al-Amiriya to…[areas] west of Palmyra.”

Late on Wednesday night IS also seized Burj al-Ishara, a strategic high point near the historic 13th century Palmyra Castle, which is situated on a hill overlooking the town’s Roman-era ruins and is some three kilometres from the town centre.

Government forces camped out at checkpoints on the outskirts of the city have responded with heavy shelling, with bombs falling on the ancient town on Wednesday night, local news sites reported. On Thursday morning, airstrikes against IS positions in Burj al-Ishara were also reported, the pro-opposition Sham News Network said.

Within the town of Palmyra a civilian taxi driver was killed, a correspondent for the Turkey-based SMART news agency said.

“We are afraid of both sides taking revenge. If IS take control then they will take revenge on the people for siding with the regime,” Saleh, a local resident, told MEE by phone. “They will behead people in the streets.”

“If the regime takes control they will take revenge on the people for siding with IS.”

Saleh said residents of the city, whose numbers have been swelled by thousands of people fleeing violence elsewhere in Syria to the relatively stable province of Homs, have been unable to flee. Up to 1,800 families who fled the IS advance in the neighbouring town of al-Suknah are taking refuge in Palmyra.

“The roads are blocked and we still can’t get out. It’s a risky trip to Homs: it’s over 120 kilometres on a dangerous road.”

“I am so anxious. I don’t care who controls it, we just don’t want a long battle. There are people who care about the ruins. But [how can] you care about the ruins? There are civilians here.”

Palmyra is located in a largely tribal area of Syria, and gained importance in ancient times as an oasis in the country’s extensive southern desert.

Today, the town is mainly inhabited by Syrian bedouins, who constitute up to 15 percent of the Syrian population and have long been marginalised from mainstream politics.

Tareq, another resident of the town, said that his family didn’t fear IS nearly as much as Assad or the US-led coalition strikes against IS.

“There is heavy fighting here until now. We think they are trying to take control of the road to Homs,” he said.

“We are not afraid of IS but we are afraid that if IS take control, then Assad will bomb us, and the Americans too.”
Lightning advance towards ancient city

Local news site Orient Net reported that IS fighters were advancing swiftly towards Palmyra, taking control of two nearby towns within the space of ten hours.
Many of Assad’s forces are preoccupied with a fight to take back the province of Idlib in northern Syria, including the battle to free a group of Assad soldiers under siege in the strategic town of Jisr al-Shughour.

According to the report, IS have taken advantage of this to launch their lightning advance on Palmyra.

Palmyra, in the eastern part of the central Homs province, is one of the oldest cities in the world, and was an ancient caravan stop for people travelling through the Syrian desert.

The town and its castle were made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980.

The modern city is a permament home for some 50,000 people, and has been under government control throughout Syria’s more than four-year civil war, apart from a short period between February to September 2013, when it fell under rebel control. On Thursday, smoke could allegedly be seen billowing above the town.

Palmyra used to be a hub for Syria’s tourist industry, but was already badly damaged by fighting before the IS advance.

The town has been subjected to shelling by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before, with residents of the town telling the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya in 2013 that bombs and shells were coming “from all directions”.

The IS advance towards Palmyra has raised fears that the militants will seek to destroy the ancient ruins, which include a pre-Islamic temple and a Roman temple.

IS militants have previously published photographs of themselves smashing priceless artefacts in the Iraqi city of Mosul, and are said to have “bulldozed” the ancient city of Nimrud in Iraq.

However, the group also sells looted artefacts on the black market, raking in an estimated $100mn a year from the illicit trade.

UNESCO, the UN body responsible for world heritage sites, considers the Palmyra ruins to be of “outstanding universal value”.

A UNESCO delegation visited Cairo on Wednesday to meet with officials from al-Azhar, Egypt’s most prestigious Sunni religious authority.

After meeting with al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, Ahmed al-Tayeb, UNESCO’s director general Irina Bokova praised the institution, saying it was “a very powerful tool to disseminate the true message of human dignity”.

Tayeb stressed during a speech that the destruction of antiquities is “against Islam”.

“Al Azhar was established 1000 years ago, and no scholars of Islam ever legitimised the destruction of cultural heritage”, said the Grand Imam.