Killings start as Palmyra falls to ISIL
TURNING POINT: American president rules out sending in troops, says Iraqis must defeat Islamist militants
Jihadists from ISIL were going door-to-door in search of “regime collaborators” in the Syrian city of Palmyra Thursday after leaving the bodies of nine men, some beheaded, in the street as a warning to others.
Residents said there was no immediate news of ISIL fighters damaging the historic ruins of Palmyra, but many inhabitants of the modern town, known locally as Tadmur, had fled in fear.
“ISIL is imposing a curfew and searching for any elements related to the regime,” said Abu Leith alShaer, one of those who left.
“They executed nine people from two families after accusing them of being spies for the regime.”
Despite the worldwide outcry at the fall of Palmyra, coming soon after the defeat of the Iraqi government in Ramadi across the border to the east, Barack Obama, the U.S. president, said he would not change course.
He has been hoping a strategy of training some Syrian “moderate” rebels, and backing the official army in Iraq, would defeat ISIL and eventually lead to a negotiated end to the Assad regime.
A White House spokesman said the jihadists’ capture of Palmyra was a “setback” for the U.S.-led coalition. However, French President François Hollande became the first Western leader to say the world must respond to ISIL seizing Palmyra.
“We have to act because there is a threat against these monuments which are part of humankind’s inheritance and at the same time we must act against Daesh,” he said, referring to ISIL by its Arabic name.
“It is really upsetting when a site of such riches, which belongs to all of humanity, falls into the hands of a terrorist group,” he added, as he arrived at an European Union-Eastern Partnership summit in the Latvian capital Riga.
UNESCO has warned the destruction of the Roman city, a World Heritage site, would be “an enormous loss to humanity”.
“It is the birthplace of human civilization,” said Irina Bokova, the UN agency’s director. “It belongs to the whole of humanity and I think everyone today should be worried about what is happening.”
But Obama rejected calls from some Republicans for the U.S. to send troops to combat ISIL directly. In an interview with The Atlantic magazine, published Thursday, he insisted the loss of Ramadi was also no more than a “tactical setback,” even as tens of thousands of refugees trekked toward Baghdad.
“No, I don’t think we’re losing,” he said. He added the U.S. would have “to ramp up not just training, but also commitment,” but would not “repeat the mistakes of the past” by sending in troops to fight. The Pentagon announced increased aid, for the time being, would consist only of 2,000 antitank missiles, to be used as a defence against ISIL’s huge suicide car bombs, which proved crucial in the fight for Ramadi.
“Today the question is not whether or not we are sending in contingents of U.S. ground troops,” Obama said. “Today the question is: how do we find effective partners to govern in those parts of Iraq that right now are ungovernable and effectively defeat ISIL, not just in Iraq but in Syria?”
He said even if it took years, it was the Iraqis who had to defeat ISIL.
“If they are not willing to fight for the security of their country, we cannot do that for them,” he said.
However, Obama already seemed to be at odds with the U.S. State Department in his assessment of the dangers posed by the Islamic fighters.
At a briefing this week, a senior official said ISIL was a more accomplished outfit than its predecessor, al-Qaida in Iraq, which was only eventually defeated by a combination of a “surge” in U.S. troops and recruiting an informal militia of Sunni tribal fighters.
“It’s better manned, it’s better
“They executed nine people from two families after accusing them of being spies.” — Abu Leith al-Shaer
resourced, they have better fighters, they’re more experienced,” the official said.
“And we know what it took for us, the best military in the world, to get a handle on (al-Qaida in Iraq).”