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Correction: Islamic State story Syria’s Assad tries to polish image with Palmyra’s recapture
(about 5 hours later)
DAMASCUS, Syria — In a story March 27 about the Syrian army’s recapture of Palmyra, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of the antiquities chief killed by the Islamic State group as Riad al-Asaad. His first name is Khaled, not Riad. BEIRUT — The recapture of Palmyra in central Syria from Islamic State militants puts government forces at the heart of the fight against the jihadist group — and not just geographically speaking.
A corrected version of the story is below: For President Bashar Assad, recapturing the historic town represents a strategic political coup through which he hopes to convince the West that the Syrian army is a credible partner in combatting terrorism as it ramps up the fight against Islamic State.
Syrian forces recapture ancient city of Palmyra from IS It is an awkward argument that the U.S. has repeatedly rebuffed. Officials in Washington are quick to point out that it was Assad’s brutal crackdown on his own people that created the kind of vacuum that allowed extremists like IS to flourish in the first place.
Syrian government forces recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra, scoring an important victory over Islamic State fighters who waged a 10-month reign of terror there An alliance between the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS — similar to the assistance and training provided to the Iraqi military on the other front in the war — seems out of the question.
By ALBERT AJI and PHILIP ISSA But with the international focus now on fighting the Islamic State group — and a partial cease-fire in place to facilitate that — there appears to be tacit U.S. approval for at least this part of Assad’s offensive in Syria to continue. If that is seen to develop, it could help the authoritarian ruler survive a ruinous 5-year-old conflict that has seen half the country’s population displaced.
Associated Press The desert town of Palmyra, with its 2,000-year-old ruins, is an archaeological gem and a cherished landmark known endearingly to Syrians as the “Bride of the Desert.” It is also a strategic crossroads linking the Syrian capital, Damascus, with the country’s east and the border with Iraq.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government forces recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra on Sunday, scoring an important victory over Islamic State fighters who waged a 10-month reign of terror there and dealing the group its first major defeat since an international agreement to battle terrorism in the fractured nation took effect last year. “It’s a fantastic public relations coup,” said Thomas Pierret, a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, describing Palmyra’s recapture. The Syrian government recognizes the Western “obsession” with the town’s ancient ruins, and “they’re exploiting it and it works very well,” he said.
The city known to Syrians as the “Bride of the Desert” is famous for its 2,000-year-old ruins that once drew tens of thousands of visitors each year before IS destroyed many of the monuments. The extent of the destruction remained unclear. Initial footage on Syrian TV showed widespread rubble and shattered statues. But Palmyra’s grand colonnades appeared to be in relatively good condition. Government forces recaptured Palmyra on Sunday, scoring an important victory over Islamic State fighters who had overseen a 10-month reign of terror in the town. It dealt the extremist group its first major defeat at the hands of government forces in years.
The government forces were supported by Lebanese militias and Russian air power. The Islamic State now faces pressure on several fronts as Kurdish ground forces advance on its territory in Syria’s north and government forces have a new path to its de facto capital, Raqqa, and the contested eastern city of Deir el-Zour. During their stay, the extremists destroyed some of Palmyra’s best-known monuments, including two large temples dating back more than 1,800 years and a Roman triumphal arch. The militants also used the ancient Roman amphitheater for public killings, including a video they released showing 25 boys with pistols shooting captured Syrian soldiers, with the colonnades in the background.
International airstrikes have pounded IS territory, killing two top leaders in recent weeks, according to the Pentagon. Those strikes have also inflicted dozens of civilian casualties. The government troops, joined by Iranian-backed militiamen, were supported by massive Russian airpower throughout their three-week offensive. When they swept victoriously into Palmyra, they emphasized the care taken by the army not to harm the archaeological sites.
In Iraq, government forces backed by the U.S. and Iran are preparing a ground offensive to retake the country’s second largest city, Mosul. Syrian officials said Palmyra would become a launching pad for operations against IS strongholds in Raqqa to the north and Deir el-Zour farther east — efforts that are expected to be much more difficult. On Tuesday, Syrian troops battled IS militants around the nearby town of Qaryatain, trying to extend their gains.
The fall of Palmyra comes a month after a partial cease-fire in Syria’s civil war came into force. The truce was sponsored by the United States and Russia in part to allow the government and international community to focus on al-Qaida styled militants, among them the IS group. Assad said the victory was “new evidence of the effectiveness of the strategy followed by the Syrian army and its allies in the war against terrorism.” Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, offered in an interview with the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen to work with the U.S., and said it was time for powers including Washington to join Moscow in working with Damascus.
In comments reported on state TV, President Bashar Assad described the Palmyra operation as a “significant achievement” offering “new evidence of the effectiveness of the strategy espoused by the Syrian army and its allies in the war against terrorism.” Unlike in Iraq, the U.S. has long suffered from the lack of reliable or credible partner in Syria. Apart from the Kurds, the Obama administration’s attempts to train and partner with Syrian rebels have all ended in failure.
IS drove government forces from Palmyra in a matter of days last May and later demolished some of its best-known monuments, including two large temples dating back more than 1,800 years and a Roman triumphal archway. U.S. officials recall that Assad has largely ignored IS gains in Syria in recent years, focusing instead on moderate Syrian rebels he deems a bigger threat. Critics point out that Assad’s forces all but handed Palmyra over to the militants in May, as officers hurriedly fled the town in the face of IS advances.
State TV showed the rubble left over from the destruction of the Temple of Bel as well as the damaged archway, the supports of which were still standing. It said a statue of Zenobia, the third century queen who ruled an independent state from Palmyra and figures strongly in Syrian lore, was missing. “While there can be no doubting that ISIS’ loss of Palmyra represents a substantial strategic blow to their operations in Syria, this is the Assad regime’s first major victory against the group-after its presence on its territory for three years,” wrote Charles Lister, a resident fellow with the Middle East Institute, in an article published by the think tank.
Artifacts inside the city’s museum also appeared heavily damaged on state TV. A sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena was decapitated, and the museum’s basement appeared to have been dynamited, the hall littered with broken statues. Still, the recapture won Assad rare praise from international officials, including the UNESCO chief who welcomed the “liberation” of Palmyra and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said he was “encouraged” that Syrian government forces were now in control.
Still, state media reported that a lion statue dating back to the second century, previously thought to have been destroyed by IS militants, was found in a damaged but recoverable condition. In the last year, the United States has softened demands for Assad’s to quickly leave power. But the U.S. doesn’t believe that Syria’s civil war can truly end with Assad still running the country and has been pushing Russia and Iran to support a transition process with a timeline for Assad’s departure.
Extremists beheaded the archaeological site’s 81-year-old director, Khaled al-Asaad, in August after he reportedly refused to divulge where authorities had hidden treasures before the group swept in. Militants viewed the ruins as monuments to idolatry. Assad’s latest Russian-backed offensive hasn’t changed that thinking.
IS also demolished Palmyra’s infamous Tadmur prison, where thousands of government opponents were reportedly tortured. On Monday, State Department spokesman John Kirby described the reconquering of Palmyra as a “good thing.” He quickly balanced that assessment by adding that “the best hope for the Syrian people is not an expansion of Bashar Assad’s ability to tyrannize the Syrian people. We all know that over the long term, the Syrian army under his command cannot bring peace to Syria.”
Syrian state TV hailed the government’s advance, and a local reporter spoke live from inside Palmyra, showing troops in the center of the town, where some buildings had been reduced to rubble. Kirby declined to congratulate Assad’s government for the military success, and said he didn’t think it would prove able to retake other parts of Syria. Assad “is responsible for the civil war that has, in fact, helped grow a group like Daesh,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Syrian Culture Minister Issam Khalil described the recapture as a “victory for humanity and right over all projects of darkness.” U.S. cooperation with the Syrian army is unrealistic in the current context of the Syrian civil war. But Syrian observers say there appears to be a U.S.-Russian understanding that the combined forces of Syrian troops backed by Russia and Syria’s Kurds backed by the U.S. is emerging as the best and most realistic fighting force against IS in the next weeks and months.
Maamoun Abdulkarim, director of the museums and antiquities department in Damascus, said Palmyra’s Great Colonnade had suffered only minor damage. “We will rebuild what you have destroyed,” he said, addressing IS. The victory in Palmyra also puts Assad in a more comfortable position ahead of negotiations that are scheduled to resume in Geneva in mid-April, making it less likely he will accept to engage in meaningful talks on a political transition.
The Syrian opposition, which blames the government for the country’s devastating civil war and the rise of IS, rejected that narrative. “Now that Assad is this hero, savior of the heritage of humanity, how could you impose upon him a transition that sidelines him eventually?” Pierret said sarcastically.
“The government wants through this operation to win the favor of Western nations by fighting against terrorism, while obscuring its responsibility as providing the reasons for the spread of terror,” said Khaled Nasser, a member of the opposition coalition that has been negotiating with the government in Geneva. Lister said having recaptured Palmyra in a widely reported military operation conducted with Russian support, “there is now no reason at all for Bashar Assad to even get close to considering a political transition.”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through local activists, confirmed that IS had lost the town. Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said three weeks of fighting killed more than 400 IS fighters, as well as 180 troops and allied militiamen.
Residents told The Associated Press that IS evacuated all of Palmyra’s civilians to other territories under its control before government forces entered the city.
“It’s joyful for people to return home. Still we are sad to see damage in this historical city,” said Sohban Eleiwi, a businessman from Palmyra now residing in Homs.
Other residents said they would not return to live under government rule.
“We don’t hate the regime any less than we hate Daesh,” said Osama Khatib, a Palmyra native who fled to Turkey three years ago after serving a jail sentence for taking part in demonstrations.
“Daesh and the regime behave the same way,” he said.
Government forces had been trying to retake the town for nearly three weeks. Gen. Ali Mayhoub announced on the Syrian TV Sunday afternoon that its recapture “directs a fatal blow to Daesh, undermines the morale of its mercenaries and ushers in the start of its defeat and retreat,” referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.
Government forces have advanced on a number of fronts in recent months, aided by a Russian air campaign. Moscow announced earlier this month that it would begin drawing down its forces, but said it will continue to target IS and other extremist groups.
Syria’s conflict began a little more than five years ago with mostly peaceful protests against the Assad family’s four-decade rule. A fierce government crackdown and the rise of an insurgency plunged the country into a full-blown civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people.
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Issa reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut also contributed to this report. Follow Zeina Karam at http://twitter.com/zkaram
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.