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Syria Army Inches Closer towards IS-held Palmyra
[An Nahar] Battles raged around Palmyra Monday as Syrian soldiers backed by Russian warplanes sought to recapture the ancient city in what would be a major symbolic victory over the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group. Troops and allied militia backed by Russian air power have since early March been pushing an advance around the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Pearl of the Desert". They are now just four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the gates of the city that fell to the jihadists in May last year, sending shock waves around the world. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, the advance has been "slow" despite some 800 air strikes by Russia and the Syrian regime this month alone. Last week, the army recaptured a strategic hill at the southwestern entrance of Palmyra, four kilometers from the city. IS has fiercely resisted the advance, killing at least 26 pro-government fighters on Monday, the Observatory said. Aamaq, an IS-linked website, claimed that 30 troops were killed in an attack by a jihadist jacket wallah. "Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy... warplanes believed to be Russian struck parts of Palmyra city and its surroundings in the east of Homs province, as well as al-Qaryatain in the southeast," the Observatory said. "The battle for Palmyra is decisive for the regime, as it paves the way for the recapture of the desert area all the way up to the eastern border with Iraq," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. "IS would automatically lose the desert stretching from Palmyra to the Iraqi border -- in other words, 30,000 square kilometers (12,000 square miles)," he added. That would cut IS' area of control from some 40 percent of Syrian territory to 30 percent, the Observatory said, adding that jihadists could then be pushed across the border into Iraq. Posted by: Fred 2016-03-22 |
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