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.
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 Islamic State fighters destroyed many of the monuments. The extent of the destruction remained unclear.
The Syrian 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 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 Ezzor.
International airstrikes have pounded Islamic State territory, killing two top leaders in recent weeks, according to the Pentagon. Those strikes have also inflicted dozens of civilian casualties.
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.
The Associated Press
