Syria's Palmyra in peril after ISIL overruns most of city

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters overran most of the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on May 20, in a blow to efforts to repel the advancing jihadists after the fall of Iraq's Ramadi.

The jihadists, notorious for demolishing archaeological treasures since declaring a "caliphate" last year straddling Iraq and Syria, appeared to have fought their way into Palmyra on foot after breaking through in the city's north.
 
It was unclear if they had reached Palmyra's UNESCO-listed heritage site, including ancient temples and colonnaded streets, and its adjacent museum housing priceless artefacts located in the city's southwest.
 
"IS [ISIL] controls almost all of Palmyra" after government troops withdrew from everywhere except a prison in the east and military intelligence headquarters in the west, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
 
An activist originally from Palmyra, Mohamed Hassan al-Homsi, said that "a large number of regime forces were seen gathering near the military intelligence branch and withdrawing".
 
Government warplanes responded by carrying out air strikes on ISIL positions in the city.
 
The assault on Palmyra came days after the militants took the Iraqi city of Ramadi, their most significant victory since mid-2014 when they conquered swathes of land, sparking a US-led air campaign to support Baghdad.
 
A US State Department official said the loss of Ramadi would force Washington to take an "extremely hard look" at its strategy against IS.
 
The jihadists sparked international outrage this year when they blew up the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud and smashed artefacts in the museum of Mosul, both in Iraq.
 
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