Daesh Pulls Back from Syria’s Palmyra

The citadel which overlooks numerous city’s monuments Palmyra was taken Syrian military source told Reuters: “The army’s entry to the city will begin very soon”.

Syria’s army entered the ancient city of Palmyra late Wednesday after fierce clashes with the Islamic State jihadist group, several weeks into a Russian-backed assault, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian army backed by Russian jets has completed the recapture of the iconic ancient city of Palmyra from the so-called Islamic State militant group, according to the Kremlin.

The Russian government denied the bombing, saying that neither Russian nor Syrian aircraft were involved.

The armed forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad attacked Islamic State defenses on the western perimeter of the triangle, authorities said, which is located in Homs Governorate in the expansive Syrian desert. Pro-government forces are stationed on the hilltops overlooking Palmyra from two sides and could retake the town within “days or hours”, Homsi predicted.

Three months later, the jihadists beheaded Palmyra’s 82-year-old former antiquities chief Khaled al-Assaad and launched a campaign of destruction against treasured monuments.

Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year, before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011. Islamic State fighters reportedly evacuated the last of their relatives on Sunday, he said.

The plans are also expected to see a significant increase in USA military aid to the Syrian Kurdish faction the YPG. celebrity news

The jihadist group also carried out mass executions in the city’s Roman theatre.

“Our military aim.is to capture Manbij and expel the SDF militia from it to prepare to take IS’s main bastion Raqa”, Ahmad al-Hassan, a field commander with the Ankara-backed rebels, told AFP.

Separately on Thursday, Russia accused the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC), Syria’s main opposition group, of disrupting the Geneva talks.

Staffan de Mistura is due for another round of meetings Thursday marking a week of bilateral talks with the government delegation and opposition groups.

However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara there was no such agreement between Russian Federation and the Syrian Kurds.