The Syrian government forces successfully recovered the ancient city of Palmyra Sunday, which also marks a significant victory over the Islamic State's territorial claims. The said vicinity has been under control of the Islamic extremist group since May, last year.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Syrian regime has regained Palmyra which also served a gateway to the extremist militant group's northeast stronghold, located in Raqqa and Deir Ezzour provinces. The forces of Syria and its allies have not yet shown whether they are preparing to launch a broader attack.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's-led forces and its allied forces from Russian, which struck down over 100 targets round the clock in the said ancient city's vicinity helped to regained and fully controlled the said area.
Though, gunfire are still reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on the eastern part of the city on Sunday, a group of Islamic State forces had retreated and left Palmyra, Haaretz reported. "The liberation of the historic city of Palmyra today is an important achievement and another indication of the success of the strategy pursued by the Syrian army and its allies in the war against terrorism," the source quoted.
The recapturing campaign of the Syrian government army took three weeks. Russian forces aided the Syrian forces with "intensive air strikes". According to Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 400 Islamic State fighters were killed on the battle, which he also marked as a significant defeat for the group.
On their success on regaining fully control of the ancient city, the secretary of the Iranian National Security Council congratulated the Syrian president over his victory on Monday, Yahoo News reported. Ali Shamkhani said, the victory of the Syrian nation's effort to wipe out terrorism is "something to be proud of." He also added that the Iranian nation will continue to support the country and the Axis of Resistance.
Palmyra is a Unesco World Heritage site with 2,000-year-old ruins and holds symbolic and strategic value for the regime. Islamic State destroyed some of those ruins during its roughly ten-month reign over the city.
