Syrian troops recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from the ISIS group on Sunday and pledged to build on the win with an advance against other jehadi strongholds.
The Army said pro-Government forces had cleared ISIS fighters from the UNESCO world heritage site, where the jehadis sparked a global outcry with the systematic destruction of treasured monuments.
“Palmyra will be the central base to broaden operations... Against Daesh in numerous areas, primarily Deir Ezzor and Raqa,” the armed forces said in a statement carried by state media, using an Arabic name for ISIS.
The northern city of Raqa is ISIS’s main Syrian bastion and the oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor is another key stronghold. Backed by a barrage of Russian air strikes, Syrian troops and allied militia launched a major offensive to retake the desert city this month.
Palmyra is both an important symbolic and strategic prize for President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, as it provides control of the surrounding desert extending all the way to the Iraqi border. At least 400 IS fighters were killed in the battle for the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. On the Government side, 188 troops and militiamen were killed.
“That’s the heaviest losses that IS has sustained in a single battle since its creation” in 2013, the director of the Britain-based monitoring group, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
A military source told AFP that ISIS militants had retreated towards the east as the army made its final push. The Observatory said the pullout had been ordered by IS high command.
“A handful of IS fighters are refusing to leave the city and seem to want to fight on to the bitter end,” Abdel Rahman said.
After the army took control of the city, sappers were defusing mines and bombs planted by IS in the ancient ruins, the source said.