Syrian troops again retake historic town from ISIS
BEIRUT — Syria’s military announced on Thursday it has fully recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group as the militants’ defenses crumbled and Islamic State fighters fled in the face of artillery fire and intense Russia-backed airstrikes.
The development marks the third time that the town — famed for its Roman ruins and archaeological treasures that Islamic State had sought to destroy — has changed hands in one year.
It was also the second blow for Islamic State in Syria in a week, after Turkish-backed opposition fighters seized the Syrian town of al-Bab from the militants on Feb. 23, following a grueling three month battle. In neighboring Iraq, the Sunni extremist group is fighting for survival in its last urban bastion in the western part of Mosul.
For the Syrian government, the news was a welcome development against the backdrop of peace talks underway with the opposition in Switzerland.
“You are all invited to visit the historic city of Palmyra and witness its beauty, now that it has been liberated,” the Damascus envoy to the U.N.-mediated talks, Bashar Jaafari, said in Geneva.
“Of course, counterterrorism operations will continue until the last inch of our territory is liberated from the hands of these foreign terrorist organizations, which are wreaking havoc in our country,” he added.
The Damascus military statement said troops gained full control of the desert town in central Syria following a series of military operations carried out with the help of Russian air cover and in cooperation with “allied and friendly troops” — government shorthand for members of Lebanese militant Hezbollah group who are fighting along Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Islamic State defenses around Palmyra had begun to erode Sunday, with government troops reaching the town’s outskirts on Tuesday.
The state SANA news agency reported earlier that government troops had entered the town’s archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around mid-day, then the town itself, as Islamic State militants fled the area.
The Syrian government first seized the town from Islamic State militants last March only to lose it 10 months later.
Before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011, Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.
The Syrian government’s push has relied on ground support from Hezbollah and Russian air cover, according to Hezbollah’s media outlets.
Archaeologists have decried extensive damage to the town’s ruins.
Islamic State, also known as ISIS, twice has used the town’s Roman theater as a stage for mass killings, most recently in January.