BEIRUT/ALEPPO/LONDON: The Daesh recaptured Palmyra on Sunday after Syrian armed forces pulled out of the desert city while in southeast Aleppo, the Syrian Army and its allies advanced as thousands keep pouring out of the area.
“Despite the ongoing air raids, Daesh retook all of Palmyra after the Syrian army withdrew south of the city,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The militants made a lightning-fast advance across the city after overrunning a northern neighborhood and capturing the famed citadel to Palmyra’s west.
The Daesh-linked Amaq news agency also reported that Daesh regained “full control” of the city on Sunday after taking the citadel, which overlooks Palmyra from a strategic hilltop.
Daesh launched an offensive last week near Palmyra, a renowned UNESCO World Heritage site.
It seized oil and gas fields before making a major push into the desert city on Saturday, sparking new worries for Palmyra’s remaining ancient treasures.
But a fierce Russian bombing campaign killed scores of Daesh fighters and forced others to withdraw at dawn on Sunday.
“Intense Russian raids since last night forced Daesh out of Palmyra, hours after the militants retook control of the city,” said the Abdel Rahman.
“The army brought reinforcements into Palmyra last night, and the raids are continuing on militants positions around the city,” he told AFP.
In a statement issued in Moscow, the Defense Ministry said Russian warplanes conducted 64 airstrikes against “positions, convoys and advancing reserves of militants” in Palmyra.
Opposition face ‘death or surrender’
The Assad forces and its allies advanced on Sunday in southeast Aleppo and an opposition official said insurgents face “death or surrender” in an ever smaller enclave, with large numbers of civilians under very fierce bombardment.
Russian and US officials are meeting in Geneva for more talks on an elusive deal for civilians and fighters to leave the city, diplomats said, but the opposition official said the Aleppo insurgents had had no word yet on their progress.
The fall of all of Aleppo to Assad would bring him the biggest victory yet after nearly six years of civil war, but he would still remain far from restoring government control over his country.
More than 200 km away, Daesh staged a surprise advance on the city of Palmyra over the weekend despite losing ground elsewhere in the country, showing how volatile the fortunes of war are and how stretched the army and its allies are.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the militants had recaptured the ancient city on Sunday after briefly retreating in the face of heavy Russian airstrikes.
Heavy shelling and air raids pounded Aleppo’s besieged opposition pocket from midnight on Saturday and throughout Sunday morning, a Reuters reporter in the city said, with explosions at a rate of more than one a minute. Gunfire was also heard.
“The result will certainly be a complete end of the district, in a tragic way,” said the Turkish-based official from the Jabha Shamiya opposition group, which is present in Aleppo.
Thousands of refugees are still pouring from the areas of fighting. The Observatory said on Sunday that more than 120,000 civilians had left the eastern part of the city as the government advance closed in, but that tens of thousands remained.
Assad’s forces are supported by Russian air power, Iran and Shiite militias from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. Together they have helped to turn the tide of conflict his way after he seemed to be on the back foot in mid-2015.
The fighters include groups supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies, but also some militant factions that receive no assistance from the West.
The army seized the Al-Maadi district on Sunday morning before fighters were able to return and continue fighting there, said the Jabha Shamiya official.
A Syrian military source said the army and its allies had captured the Al-Asila and Aaajam districts, southeast of Aleppo’s ancient citadel, as well as the southern portion of the Karam Al-Daada neighborhood.