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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Islamic State planted thousands of mines in Palmyra: Syrian army
2016-04-03
It's what they do, along with digging tunnels, suicide bombers, taking hostages, and selling drugs, antiquities, and sex slaves -- in short, the ultimate modern jihadi organization.
[REUTERS] 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 bandidos snuffies retreating from Palmyra laid thousands of mines that they planned to set off simultaneously as the army moved in, a Syrian officer told Rooters in the ancient city after its recapture from the jihadist fighters.

The officer said main streets and side roads in Palmyra had been rigged with explosives weighing up to 50 kg. More than 3,000 had already been safely detonated since government forces, backed by Russian jets, retook the city on Sunday, he said.

He did not say why the Islamic State fighters failed to set off the explosives before pulling out, but his assertion echoed comments from Syria's antiquities chief, who said the bandidos snuffies intended to dynamite a greater area of the city's 2,000-year-old ruins than they already had.

The officer, who did not give his name, said the bombs left behind were linked so they could go off together.

"All the government buildings are rigged in a network connected to the Daesh [Islamic State] leadership headquarters," he said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. "The idea was that as we enter it would all go off at once, not just bomb by bomb. And there are a really huge number of bombs."

Islamic State's defeat in Palmyra was not only a significant military victory for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
, opening up the country's central desert to government forces and their allies. It also cast the Syrian army as an effective fighting force against jihadists bent on cultural vandalism and wanton killing.

A military source told Rooters on Saturday troops had identified 45 bodies in a mass grave in Palmyra, including civilians and Syrian army members captured by Islamic State.

Parts of Palmyra have been cleared, including the road from Homs. But Syrian soldiers -- soon to be joined by Russian de-mining experts -- are still working on defusing or detonating explosives.
Posted by:Fred

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