Islamic State jihadists retreating from Syria’s Palmyra
ISLAMIC State fighters withdrew from much of the Syrian oasis city of Palmyra overnight, a monitor said yesterday, but government forces paused before entering its ravaged ancient ruins because of mines.
Russian-backed Syrian troops pushed into a western neighbourhood of the city late on Wednesday after fierce clashes with the jihadists.
By yesterday morning, IS had withdrawn to residential neighbourhoods in the east of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“IS withdrew from most of Palmyra after laying mines across the city. There are still suicide bombers left in the eastern neighbourhoods,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. “Government forces have not yet been able to enter the heart of the city or the eastern parts.”
Palmyra’s ancient ruins are listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site.
Before IS entered the city in May 2015, it boasted temples, colonnaded alleys and elaborately decorated tombs that were among the best preserved classical monuments in the Middle East.
But the jihadists launched a campaign of destruction against them, the scale of which was fully revealed when gov- ernment forces briefly retook the city with Russian support last year.
Satellite imagery has shown that IS has demolished more monuments since it recaptured Palmyra from government forces in December.
“There are no IS fighters left in most of the Old City, but it is heavily mined,” the Observatory chief said.
Supported by Russian airstrikes and ground troops, government forces have been battling through the desert for weeks to reach Palmyra.
On Wednesday, a senior military source in Damascus said the army had reached a strategic crossroads leading into the city.
Syrian antiquities director Maamoun Abdul Karim said he was looking forward to “the end of the nightmare” of IS’s rule over Palmyra.
“I feel a mix of joy and fear. Joy, because we’re sure that there will be no more damage to the archaeological site at Palmyra, and apprehension to see what has happened to the city,” Abdul Karim said by telephone from Damascus.
He said he was impatiently waiting to head to Palmyra himself to see the extent of the damage.
“It’s a nightmare . . . When we talk about Palmyra now, we no longer talk about its beauty. It has become synony- mous with fear,” Abdul Karim said.
Moscow’s support has been key in the Syrian army’s push towards Palmyra, and its warplanes continued to bombard IS positions inside and near the city yesterday, the Observatory reported.
This week, Moscow called for “terrorism” to be added to the agenda of UNsponsored peace talks in Geneva between Syria’s opposition and government figures.
The sputtering talks so far have focused on three so-called “baskets”: governance, the constitution, and elections.
But the main opposition group – after an unprecedented meeting with a Russian minister – said late on Wednesday that it would refuse to add terrorism to the areas of discussion.
“We will not deal with it, and if [UN mediator Staffan de Mistura] adds it in any time we will not deal with it or discuss it,” saidYehya Kodmani of the High Negotiations Committee.