After successfully reclaiming Palmyra, Syrian troops take another ISIL-controlled town

DAMASCUS, Syria — A week after taking back the historic town of Palmyra, Syrian troops and their allies on Sunday captured another town controlled by ISIL in central Syria, state media reported. The push into the town of Qaryatain took place under the cover of Russian airstrikes and dealt another setback to the ISIL extremists in Syria. However, an activist group that monitors the Syrian civil war said the government forces for the moment control more than half of Qaryatain but have not fully secured the town. The advance came a week after Syrian forces recaptured Palmyra from ISIL and is strategically significant for the government side. The town of Qaryatain used to be home to a sizable Christian population and lies midway between Palmyra and the capital, Damascus. Activists said last summer that Qaryatain had a mixed population of around 40,000 Sunni Muslims and Christians, as well as thousands of internally displaced people who had fled from the nearby city of Homs. Many of the Christians fled the town after it came under ISIL attack. Dozens of Qaryatain’s Christians and other residents have been abducted by the extremists. While the town was under ISIL control, some were released, others were made to sign pledges to pay a tax imposed on nonMuslims. While ISIL extremists blew up and destroyed some of the world’s most precious relics at Palmyra’s archaeological site during their 10-month reign of terror there, the ancient Saint Eliane Monastery near Qaryatain was also bulldozed and destroyed shortly after ISIL took the town in August. Christians make up about 10 per cent of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million people.