Assad regime will recapture Palmyra for second time ‘very soon’

Russian-backed Syrian government forces will enter the Daesh-held city of Palmyra “very soon”, a Syrian military source said today, as government forces seek to win back the city from the group for the second time in a year.

The army said earlier today that it had captured an area known as the “Palmyra triangle” a few kilometres west of the city.

Backed by Russian airstrikes and Iranian-sponsored Shia jihadists such as the Lebanese Hezbollah group, Syrian forces loyal to the regime of dictator Bashar Al-Assad claimed to have advanced to the outskirts of Palmyra in the last few days. “The army’s entry to the city will begin very soon,” Reuters cited a military source as saying.

The Assad regime lost control of Palmyra to Daesh in December, having first recaptured it with Russian air support last March. The group has razed ancient monuments during both of its spells in control of the UNESCO World Heritage Site – destruction the United Nations has condemned as a war crime.

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Though the Assad regime appeared to be ascendant against its claimed adversaries, the Syrian opposition and more radical groups such as Daesh, the loss of Palmyra for the second time was a humiliating defeat not only for Damascus, but also Moscow.

After Palmyra was recaptured the first time, the Russians made a big fanfare out of the occasion, and had an orchestra play live music in the ancient amphitheatre. Daesh’s return served only to expose the futility of the symbolic Russian gesture.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based organisation that reports on the war, said regime forces were expected to storm Palmyra at “any moment”. Russia has said its aircraft are supporting the army offensive in Palmyra.

Photos published on a Daesh social media Telegram account yesterday showed the group’s fighters firing at the Syrian army with rockets and a tank. Though the authenticity of the photos could not be independently verified, Daesh has successfully conducted raids and operations against the Assad regime in the past.

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Daesh first captured Palmyra from the government in 2015. During its first period in control of the site, the extremists destroyed monuments including a 1,800-year-old monumental arch.

Most recently, Daesh has razed the landmark Tetrapylon and the facade of Palmyra’s Roman Theatre. Palmyra, known in Arabic as Tadmur, stood at the crossroads of the ancient world.

The Assad regime and its allies lost Palmyra as they focused on defeating Syrian opposition groups in eastern Aleppo. They thus focused on more moderate groups and allowed extremists like Daesh, claimed to be the primary enemy of the Assad regime in the ongoing war, to slip back in.

The Syrian opposition and tens of thousands of civilians were driven from eastern Aleppo in December, the government’s biggest victory of the war.