Tadmur (Palmyra): Even nominally friendly sites like NSNBC are misreporting events in this historically important town in the far east of Homs Governorate. Many sites are simply making the fatuous statement that the entire city of Palmyra has been overrun by ISIS fanatics and that includes Alalam and Al-Mayaadeen.
Interesting to note that neither news source has anyone on the ground there to report directly.
Two days ago, the SAA and militias supported by local tribesmen and the ubiquitous Syrian Air Force clobbered ISIS destroying whole convoys of trucks and armored pickups armed with anti-aircraft guns. By the SAA’s reckoning, that was the end of the assault on the town. We reported confidently that the brunt of the ISIS assault was crushed by the combination of forces mentioned in the foregoing.
The night of May 20, 2015 saw a unique operation by, what is claimed to be, “thousands” of foot soldiers crowding into the northern neighborhoods of this small city. With stealth, they managed to establish a salient in the north which would eventually secure the arrival of hundreds more of the terrorist vermin. It was this morning when the battle for the center of the city began. Arrayed against the ISIS rodents are the NDC, Ba’ath Party militias and local fighters committed to keeping Saudi-style nihilism out of their lives. Interesting, too, is that the terrorists did not use a suicide truck bomber to open a corridor into the town.
The mistake was to assume that the ISIS threat was gone and to withdraw many troops from the city in order to protect other sites, especially the newly recovered gas and oil stations. This left the town largely unprotected. In addition to this, our military sources state that the bulk of the ISIS rodents were remnants of defeated units at the Al-Shaa’er Mountain area where many gas fields are located.
Friendly sites kept repeating that Palmyra was “strategically” important. Every site in Syria is reported as “strategically important” and its becoming nauseating. Palmyra is not important militarily unless you are a terrorism supporter, in which case, every hamlet becomes a major site for blocking this or that. It happens to be important strictly from the standpoint that it contains a tourism-rich Roman city considered a gem of architectural splendor in the desert.
All inhabitants of the town have been evacuated, just like Idlib. The rats won’t have anyone to behead here unless they can capture a soldier or militiaman.
The SAA has redeployed forces to all entrances to the town. All, I repeat “all”, corridors into the city are under the control of the SAA. SAA artillery and SAAF sorties are destroying whole nests of ISIS rats – a process made even easier by the evacuation of citizens. The SAA has already retaken the two checkpoints at the Museum and the Khattaab Quarter. There is an on-going pitched battle now around the National Security Building. The SAA has recovered control over the Military Security Headquarters and all Western Hills including the Desert Falcons Branch HQ and the Citadel.
As I write, I am informing NSNBC, that there is a very violent battle going on at the city center. The Palmyra ruins remain in the hands of the Syrian Army.
This is the best news I can bring you at the present time. I will continue to update as more Intel comes in.
