ISIS forces were seen on the defensive for months, increasingly falling back in the face of military offensives in both Iraq and Syria. They lost most of their northern holdings in Syria, and the bulk of their territory in Iraq. That doesn’t mean they’re totally incapable of launching offensives, however.
After taking significant territory in the surrounding area over the past week, ISIS has captured the ancient city of Palmyra, the second time they’ve taken the strategically important city in the course of the Syrian Civil War.
ISIS first took the city in 2014 and lost it the following year to Syrian troops. With Syria focusing its military power elsewhere, particularly in Aleppo, the defenses were quickly overrun by an ISIS advance, and ISIS took over the city with comparatively little resistance.
This both reflects ISIS moving increasingly into the southeast, away from the northern territory captured by Turkey. While Palmyra and the surrounding area is of limited value, apart from the nearby oil fields, the city does have some strategic value on highways between Iraq and Syria.
Nope!! https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612111048411972-syrian-army-regains-palmyra/
As this zionist and CIA-sponsored mercenary-scum (posing as islamists) already destroyed most of the ancient city in their first barbaric rule it now does not matter any more that they got the city again under their control. These ruins can be restored later. It is all saved in numerous photographs, movies and archives.
I have seen Palmyra 15 years ago as tourist. It is a shame this destruction.
But that there are now 5000 mercenaries crowded together gives a good opportunity to finally give these gangsters a final blow: the modern city is not that big. And when finishing off the zionist paid terrorists in Aleppo, the Syrians should be able to deploy 20.000 soldiers to Palmyra which is much easier to capture than Aleppo with several million inhabitants.
The Russians and the Syrian Arab Army should use this opportunity to deploy massive reinforcements, encircle Palmyra with no way out for these Mossad-CIA-mercenaries and wipe them out until the last man.
Than their backbone with the loss of 5000 of their fighters is broken!
Mr. Ditz really needs to put down the ‘fake news’ sources he uses. The only source for this is a link to nbcnews, those famous producers of fake news. Have the found the WMD’s yet in Iraq.
Other news sources make points that this fake news source misses. One is that they have not taken the city of Palmyra. Only that they’ve gotten into the outskirts of the city where they know the Russians won’t bomb the civilian areas. Getting into the outskirts is very big difference from the NBC/Pentagon claim that the ciy has been lost.
Mr. Ditz also misses the point that these are fighters that the US has led out of Mosul scott free. Once again ISIS is driving convoys of trucks across a desert and the mighty USAF and the US intel satelites can’t find a glimpse of them.
On top of that, apparently the US and their allies have ‘paused’ the offensive in the Raqqa area, which also let ISIS attach unhampered over at Palmyra.
Personally, I would never go to NBC for any sort of ‘news’. I simply don’t trust them, not one bit. But if I come here, I get story after story from NBC and the WaPo. I’m searching for other, more reliable news sources. This site just regurgitates the same fake news produced by the same corporate fake news outlets.
Please, find some new sources.