Palmyra: ISIS Says It's In Full Control of Ancient City, Nearby Airport and Prison

[SBD-3]

ISIS said it was in full control of the ancient city of Palmyra on Thursday following a bloody battle with Syrian pro-government forces, a gain rife with strategic as well as historical implications.

In a statement labeled "Breaking News," ISIS announced the victory in Palmyra and said its fighters were in control of the "notorious" nearby prison and airport. The statement — released by the ISIS authority in Homs and distributed by the group's supporters on Twitter — said that retreating pro-government forces had left behind "large numbers" of their dead.

Syrian state TV acknowledged that pro-government forces had withdrawn from Palmyra.

The capture of Palmyra gives the militants as much of a strategic gem as a cultural one. While the city is home to a UNESCO world heritage site and famous for its 2,000-year-old ruins — there are many other prizes in line for ISIS to potentially plunder.

"There's a lot of strategic assets in the area which ISIS will be gunning for — military bases, weapons depots, oil and gas facilities," said Matthew Henman, head of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center. "For ISIS, whenever moving in, territory is key but the thing it really prioritizes is strategic assets."

With Palmyra, ISIS has significantly expanded its territorial control and put the already-stretched Syrian government forces under greater pressure, Henman said.

"Things aren't going to get any better for the government," Henman said. "It's pretty bad news."


Concerns continued to mount that ISIS militants would set their sights on destroying Palmyra's irreplaceable and historic ruins, including a Roman aqueduct and necropolises.
ISIS already has raided and destroyed priceless antiquities in neighboring Iraq, fromlaying waste to the 3,000-year-old city of Nimrud to smashing relics in a Mosul museum.

UNESCO's Secretary General Irina Bokova has repeatedly called for an end to hostilities in Palmyra, saying Wednesday that the fighting "is putting at risk one of the most significant sites in the Middle East, and its civilian population."





We call for an IMMEDIATE END to hostilities in #WorldHeritage Palmyra UNESCO Director-General calls for immediate cessation of hostilities in Palmyra | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization#Unite4Heritage pic.twitter.com/dIvXWRVGZi

-UNESCO (@UNESCO) May 20, 2015
Palmyra: ISIS Says It's In Full Control of Ancient City, Nearby Airport and Prison - NBC News

 

[Al Bhatti]

21 May 2015

Palmyra: Syrian forces trapped civilians, UN says

The United Nations says it has received reports that Syrian forces in Palmyra prevented civilians from leaving, ahead of its fall to Islamic State militants.

The UN, though not present in Palmyra, cited "credible sources".

It said it was "deeply concerned" about the plight of civilians remaining in Palmyra, amid reports of summary executions.

IS has also overrun the World Heritage site adjacent to the modern city, raising concerns about its future.

The militants have previously demolished ancient sites that pre-date Islam.

UN cultural organisation Unesco says its destruction would be "an enormous loss to humanity", but no damage has been reported there yet.

IS has also taken control of a military airbase and a notorious prison near to Palmyra.

Meanwhile, IS has seized the last border crossing between Syria and Iraq after Syrian government forces withdrew, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The loss of the al-Tanf crossing in Homs province means the Syrian government does not control any of the country's border posts with Iraq.

The fall of Palmyra comes just days after IS captured the major Iraqi city of Ramadi.

The US has acknowledged the militants' gains are a "setback" for coalition forces targeting IS, but President Barack Obama insisted the US was not losing the war with the group.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the problem of IS was "not going to be solved overnight".

"Until we're able to build up local forces on the ground in Syria who can take the fight to Isil [IS] in their own country," he said, "this is going to continue to be a difficult challenge."

Analysis: Jim Muir, BBC News, Beirut

Many questions will now be asked in Damascus and Baghdad - and above all in Washington - about how the militants have managed to score major advances in both Iraq and Syria this week despite all the efforts to stop them.

IS was supposed to be on the defensive in Iraq, where the prime minister announced weeks ago the launching of a campaign to drive the militants out of Anbar province. Now he's lost its capital, Ramadi, just days before they took Palmyra in Syria.

The Western coalition's bombing campaign has clearly hurt IS where it could. But it could never compensate for ground forces which are not competent, equipped or motivated enough to stand firm and hit back.

Only the Kurds in the north of both countries, most recently in north-eastern Syria, have proven able to do that.


'Power plants destroyed'

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN in Geneva, told the BBC that the organisation believed the population of Tadmur, the modern settlement next to Palmyra, was about 200,000 - of whom about a third had fled.

Many civilians were only able to flee on Wednesday and Thursday, once Syrian government forces themselves had fled and IS took over the city, she said.

Electricity has been cut off since Wednesday after retreating government forces apparently destroyed power plants, she added.

Syrian state media said pro-government forces had pulled out after "assuring the evacuation" of "most" of the inhabitants of Tadmur.

An activist who has family members in Palmyra told the BBC that his relatives wanted to flee but there was no way out.

IS fighters were searching the city for Syrian army soldiers, he said, and residents were being warned via mosque loudspeakers not to hide them.

He also said the inhabitants were angry that Western media were focusing on the ancient ruins, and not the population.

"People think the West cares more about the civilisation than about the people who created or initiated this civilisation," he said.

The UN also believes that IS has been carrying out door-to-door searches in the city, Ms Shamdasani said.

Unesco's director-general, Irina Bokova, appealed to all sides to preserve the ruins.

"We have to protect such incredible vestiges of human history," she said.

Ms Bokova told the BBC that protecting sites like Palmyra had become a security imperative, as well as a cultural concern, because, she said, the militias were using trafficked artefacts to get funds.

"This is part of the financing of extremism and it is absolutely imperative that we stop these channels of illicit trafficking."

Elsewhere in Syria, 40 rebels from Islamist factions were killed in Aleppo when a rebel headquarters was bombed by an explosive barrel, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The dead include three commanders, the group claimed.

Palmyra: Syrian forces trapped civilians, UN says - BBC News





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These maps show what ISIS has achieved in the last year - Yahoo Finance

 

[Mujahid Memon]

yesterday i was watching CNN, they were showing how these pigs are destroying heritage sites