Syrian forces pursue campaign against Islamic State after retaking Palmyra
Syrian government forces backed by Russian air strikes battled Islamic State insurgents around Palmyra on March 28, trying to extend their gains after taking back control of a city whose ancient temples were dynamited by the ultra-radical militants.
The loss of Palmyra on March 27 is one of the biggest setbacks for the jihadist group since it declared a caliphate in 2014 across large parts of Syria and Iraq. It is also a major victory for President Bashar al-Assad and ally Russia, casting them as critical to the international fight against Islamic State.
The Syrian army said the city, home to some of the most extensive ruins of the Roman Empire, would become a "launchpad" for operations against Islamic State strongholds in Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, further east across a vast expanse of desert.
Syrian state media said on March 28 Palmyra's military airport was now open to air traffic after the army cleared the surrounding area of Islamic State fighters.
"Now there is a convergence of interests worldwide about the fact that ISIS (Islamic State) really needs to be confronted. It is a strategic defeat for ISIS and by default a strategic victory for Assad and Putin," said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. "It feeds into Assad's narrative about Syria being a bulwark against Islamic State."
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Clashes continued northeast of Palmyra between Islamic State and forces allied to the government, supported by Syrian and Russian air strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based body which monitors the war.
Air strikes, believed to be Russian, also targeted the road running east out of Palmyra towards Deir al-Zor, and there was fighting around the Islamic State-held town of Qaryatain on March 28, 100 km (60 miles) west of Palmyra, the Observatory said.
The Syrian government has been trying to retake Qaryatain since Islamic State seized it last August.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking in Amman, said he was "encouraged" that Syrian government forces had been able to drive Islamic State out of Palmyra and that the city's ancient heritage could now be preserved.
But the Syrian opposition said it feared Assad's forces were using a fragile cessation of hostilities in the wider conflict to make territorial gains.
"I fear one thing: that the period of the truce will allow the Assad regime to gobble up what remains of Syria by liberating areas that are controlled by Daesh (Islamic State) and Nusra," Riad Nassan Agha, a member of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, told Reuters by telephone.
