Russian Special Forces Prepare to Retake Palmyra
Russian special forces arrived in the western countryside of Palmyra on Saturday evening and are expected to help Syrian forces retake the ancient city in the coming days
The (second) fall of Palmyra to ISIS came as a shock to almost everyone. (We are not trained in military matters, but apparently the major takeaway from this catastrophe is: controlling the high ground around Palmyra is the key to controlling the actual city.)
There's no dispute that Palmyra has been a major embarrassment for Russia. The liberation of the city was supposed to symbolize the effectiveness of Russian/Syrian/Iranian military cooperation and signal a turning point in the war.
Assad needed to take Palmyra to convince his people that the fight for Syria wasn't futile. Putin needed it to show the Russian people that the military operations in Syria were producing results.
in the explosion of a car on a radio-controlled land mine in Syria killed four Russian military personnel, according to the Russian Defense Ministry press release.
It is reported that the motorcade of Syrian troops, which was the car with the Russian military advisors from the region followed Tiyas airport towards the city of Homs.
After the column drove about 4 km, a car in which there were Russian soldiers, load RC charge.
As a result, undermine the four soldiers were killed and two more wounded. It is noted that for their lives fighting the Russian military medics.
militants from the village Serghaya on the border with Lebanon have expressed the desire to move to the province of Idlib, controlled by militants, following the example of thousands of other fighters who in recent months prefer to leave their enclaves in Damascus province, rather than be killed. 8 buses with their families left the village and went in Idlib through Russian mediation.