Palmyra is latest addition to Islamic State losses
Apart from being a rare bit of good news in the five-year-long Syrian civil war that has killed 3,00,000, displaced millions and destroyed an entire country, the loosening of the Islamic State’s grip over the ancient city of Palmyra this past weekend also puts the spotlight on a related development: The significant losses suffered by the terror group both in Syria as well as in Iraq. While Palmyra, in Syria, is being taken by pro-Government forces after a weeks-old offensive aided by Russian airstrikes (and to a lesser extent, the US-led coalition which had also trained some of its firepower in and around Palmyra), in Iraq, US airstrikes helped Iraqi Government forces chase out the Islamic from a string of villages in the northern part of the country.
Previously, the Iraqi Army, with similar air support from the US, had also won back the strategically crucial city of Ramadi. The city was cleared of militants earlier this year and marked a major victory against the Islamic State. The win in Palmyra is of similar importance. While crucial to saving whatever remains of the UN heritage site, it is also of immense strategic value as Palmyra serves as an access point to large parts of eastern Syria for Government forces. Indeed, the liberation of Palmyra, which had been captured by the Islamic State in May 2015, is one of the biggest victories for President Bashar al-Assad in recent months. Previously, the fighting had stagnated with no party strong enough to crush the others and secure a victory. But that equation changed in September 2015 when Russia intervened — and decisively so — and turned the tide in favour of the Assad regime. Today, Syrian forces, aided by Russian airstrikes, have also made inroads around the Islamic State stronghold of Bab, and are closing in on the outskirts of Raqqa, the Islamic State's headquarters.
Indeed, the Islamic State has not had any mentionable military success in more than eight months. Morale is low and its foot soldiers are reportedly reluctant to fight. The group's top leadership is also being steadily decimated — last week, the US took out a top Islamic State commander who, the US Defence Secretary said, was in the line to lead the group. The week before that, the Pentagon confirmed, the Islamic State's Minister of War had been killed. However, while the terror group has been put on the backfoot, it is far from being neutralised — for that, political as well as military wins will be necessary. In this context, the success of the UN-mediated peace talks, jointly sponsored by the US and Russia, is key. But the process is moving, if at all, at an excruciatingly slow pace. Meanwhile, the Islamic State is taking the war outside Syria and Iraq. Its foreign fighters, many of them European citizens, are returning home and launching attacks around the world — Paris, Istanbul, Ankara and, most recently, Brussels, not to mention, Tunis, Sousse, Tripoli, Copenhagen, Sana’a, Suruç and San Bernardino among others.