Five people have been killed and many others wounded following intense Russian airstrikes against Daesh in Palmyra, in an attempt to shore up the crumbling Assad regime forces who have completely withdrawn and surrendered the city to the militant group.

Not only have Daesh successfully managed to force the Assad regime’s greatly weakened army to withdraw from Palmyra, but they have had enough time to reinforce their newly regained positions in the ancient city, killing well over 100 of Syrian soldiers and Shia militia fighters.

Daesh announced that it had captured 30 Russian-made tanks as well as large quantities of materiel, including Grad rocket launchers with ammunition, while killing at least 120 men loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad, Al Jazeera reported.

The Governor of Homs province, Talal Al-Burazi, had previously admitted that Palmyra, known as Tadmur in Arabic, was lost to Daesh after the Assad regime’s forces completely withdrew in the face of the onslaught over the weekend.

Daesh had held Palmyra until it lost the city to a Russian-backed Assad regime offensive. Following its recapture in March this year, the Assad regime and its Russian backers held concerts and celebrated to large public fanfare.

The loss of Palmyra has been seen as an enormous embarrassment to both Moscow and Damascus, with a nervous Kremlin attempting to present its failure to protect Palmyra as an international problem.

“The threat of losing Palmyra is a loss for all civilised humankind, not just for Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today.

The Kremlin also added that the loss of Palmyra shows how serious the Daesh threat remains. This despite many statements from Moscow making claims that its intervention had stunted “terrorism” in Syria.

Russia, Iran and Syria refer to any anti-Assad regime factions as “terrorists”, irrespective of whether they have anything to do with terrorism or not.

Analysts also suggest that the loss of Palmyra is down to the Assad regime and its backers focusing all of their efforts on crushing what remains of pro-democracy opposition factions in Aleppo, leaving their rear unprotected and allowing Daesh to expand rather than shrink, as was Russia’s stated objective when it launched its military intervention.

Russia intervened on behalf of the Iran-backed Assad regime over a year ago and reversed Al-Assad’s fortunes over the past year. Eastern Aleppo, one of the Syrian opposition’s last strongholds, is on the cusp of falling with Moscow claiming 93% of the Syrian city is now in regime hands.</s>US Senator Richard Black says that it is inconceivable that the US-led coalition could have overlooked the regrouping and advance of ISIS terrorists from Mosul in Iraq to Palmyra in Syria.

He suggests that ISIS is being used as tool by Saudi Arabia, the US & Turkey when it suits their interests.

In October is was reported that the US and Saudi Arabia had agreed to grant thousand of ISIS militants free passage out of the Iraqi city of Mosul and into Syria…..And lo and behold earlier this week 4,000 Islamic State terrorists managed to launch an assault on Syria’s ancient city, reinforced by tanks and heavy military hardware.

Given that the territory between areas occupied by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Palmyra is a “very barren” rocky desert, “it is unconceivable that the American-led collation could not have seen this massive army moving towards Palmyra,” Senator Black told RT.

“I was surprised that ISIS was able to attack Palmyra. It’s important to recognize that the distance from ISIS-held territory [to] Palmyra is approximately 100 miles,” added the senator, who has repeatedly voiced support for Syrian President Bashar Assad in battling the jihadists.

The fact that the US-led coalition seemingly turned a blind eye to the imminent terrorist threat to the UNESCO world heritage site is not a coincidence, he argues, but rather a part of the foreign policy strategy employed by the current White House administration towards Islamic State.

“Unfortunately, I believe, under the Obama administration, I think there have been great deal of coordination between terrorist forces and the US-led coalition,” Black said.

While the US, as well as other western countries and major regional players, do not share the same goals as the terrorists, they have been seemingly sparing Islamic State if airstrikes against the terrorist group could have resulted in disadvantage to Turkey, the key NATO member in the region and a US ally, which Black alleges, has engaged in economic relations with terrorists.

“There [the terrorists] have not been loved by anyone, but they have been a major trading partner of Turkey, and the United States withheld any attack when they first seized Palmyra travelling a hundred miles over open territory, and, I confirm, there was not a single bomb dropped by the American-led coalition,” he said.

This very selective approach to fighting terrorists gives reason to suggest that the US-led coalition is battling jihadists only when it does not interfere with the narrow interests of its members, Black suggests, dubbing the coalition’s efforts under such circumstances as “disastrously unproductive.”

“I think ISIS is often used as a tool between Turkey and the United States and as long as they are useful to one of those parties they are protected and when they are not useful they are not protected,” Black said, arguing that ISIS served as “tool of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States and NATO forces…from the very beginning” of the conflict in Syria.

At the same time, the senator commended the US-led offensive in Iraq, which has centered on liberating its second largest city, Mosul, from militants, saying that the coalition was “doing some very good work in Mosul” and seems to be genially poised to “drive ISIS forces from Mosul.”

However, US President Barack Obama’s recent decision to lift restrictions on the delivery of weapons to “foreign forces, irregular forces, groups or individuals,” who are supported by US military in Syria, plays into the hands of terrorists and looks like “a desperate last attempt” by the outgoing administration, Black said.

The senator said that the looming change of commander-in-chief in the United States will be marked by a U-turn in Syria, with the US cutting all its ties with militants.

“When Donald Trump comes in, the support is going to be cut for the terrorists. We are not going on to the side of the terrorists anymore,” he said.

Sen. Black has been known as a fierce critic of the current US policy towards Syria, calling it “insane” in comments to the Washington Post in April, when he argued that “it is within our power” to stop the bloodshed.

In April, Black traveled to Palmyra and met with Syrian government officials. He has said that Syria being entrapped in the military conflict is not the result of domestic issues but of a plot contrived by foreign intelligence, including that of the western countries, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

“The government and people in Syria want peace, but regional countries don’t,” Black told Homs Governor Talal Barazi at the time, as cited by the Syria Times.</s>PARIS | Days after the Islamic State group seized back control of the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra, a prescient exhibit was inaugurated in Paris on Tuesday that aims to educate the public on the wounded wonder that Syrians affectionately call the “Bride of the Desert.”

Its organizers said the display opening Wednesday is designed to be an “emotional” experience that takes visitors to Palmyra and other endangered world heritage sites in the Middle East. It’s also meant to show how much of the Syrian site’s heritage so far has been spared.

The exhibit at the Grand Palais plunges visitors into a three-dimensional, 360-degree projection using never-before-seen images of Palmyra. They were taken by a drone in April days after the city was liberated from Islamic State group fighters.

A bassin made for a sultan by Syrian coppersmiths is displayed at the Palmyra Exhibit, a three-dimensional projection featuring never-before-seen images of Palmyra taken by a drone in April after the city was liberated from IS fighters, at Grand Palais in Paris, Tuesday, Dec.13, 2016. As Islamic State extremists recapture the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, the French president and the UNESCO chief are inaugurating an exhibit in Paris to educate the public about the wonders of endangered UNESCO heritage sites in Palmyra and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) A third century funerary banquet of Palmyre from the Louvre collection is displayed the Palmyra Exhibit, a three-dimensional projection featuring never-before-seen images of Palmyra taken by a drone in April after the city was liberated from IS fighters, at Grand Palais in Paris, Tuesday, Dec.13, 2016. As Islamic State extremists recapture the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, the French president and the UNESCO chief are inaugurating an exhibit in Paris to educate the public about the wonders of endangered UNESCO heritage sites in Palmyra and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) View of the Palmyra Exhibit, a three-dimensional projection featuring never-before-seen images of Palmyra taken by a drone in April after the city was liberated from IS fighters, at Grand Palais in Paris, Tuesday, Dec.13, 2016. As Islamic State extremists recapture the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, the French president and the UNESCO chief are inaugurating an exhibit in Paris to educate the public about the wonders of endangered UNESCO heritage sites in Palmyra and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) French President Francois Hollande, left, attends the opening of the Palmyra Exhibit, a three-dimensional projection featuring never-before-seen images of Palmyra taken by a drone in April after the city was liberated from IS fighters, at Grand Palais in Paris, Tuesday, Dec.13, 2016. As Islamic State extremists recapture the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, the French president and the UNESCO chief are inaugurating an exhibit in Paris to educate the public about the wonders of endangered UNESCO heritage sites in Palmyra and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, Pool) Visitors look on in the Palmyra Exhibit, a three-dimensional projection featuring never-before-seen images of Palmyra taken by a drone in April after the city was liberated from IS fighters, at Grand Palais in Paris, Tuesday, Dec.13, 2016. As Islamic State extremists recapture the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, the French president and the UNESCO chief are inaugurating an exhibit in Paris to educate the public about the wonders of endangered UNESCO heritage sites in Palmyra and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) FILE - This file photo released March 27, 2016, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a destroyed statue outside the damaged Palmyra Museum, in Palmyra city, central Syria. Palmyra, the archaeological gem that Islamic State fighters retook Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016, from Syrian troops, is a desert oasis surrounded by palm trees, and a UNESCO world heritage site, that boasts 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and priceless artifacts. It is also a strategic crossroads linking the Syrian capital, Damascus, with the country's east and neighboring Iraq. (SANA via AP, File) FILE -- In this April 14, 2016 file photo, Russian soldiers stand on a road as smoke rises from a controlled land mine detonation by Russian experts inside the ancient town of Palmyra, Syria in the central Homs province. Palmyra, the archaeological gem that Islamic State fighters retook Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016, from Syrian troops, is a desert oasis surrounded by palm trees, and a UNESCO world heritage site, that boasts 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and priceless artifacts. It is also a strategic crossroads linking the Syrian capital, Damascus, with the country's east and neighboring Iraq. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File) FILE -- This file photo released March 28, 2016, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows destroyed statues at the damaged Palmyra Museum, in Palmyra city, central Syria. Palmyra, the archaeological gem that Islamic State fighters retook Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016, from Syrian troops is a desert oasis surrounded by palm trees, and a UNESCO world heritage site, that boasts 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and priceless artifacts. It is also a strategic crossroads linking the Syrian capital, Damascus, with the country's east and neighboring Iraq. (SANA via AP, File) FILE -- In this April 8, 2016 file photo provided by Russian Defense Ministry press service, a Russian deminer checks for mines in the Palmyra ancient ruins, Syria. Palmyra, the archaeological gem that Islamic State fighters retook Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016, from Syrian troops, is a desert oasis surrounded by palm trees, and a UNESCO world heritage site, that boasts 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and priceless artifacts. It is also a strategic crossroads linking the Syrian capital, Damascus, with the country's east and neighboring Iraq. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service Photo via AP, File)

But just as the exhibit opens, the threat to the city it honors is ratcheting up.

Islamic State group militants on Sunday re-occupied the site, from which they had been expelled earlier this year, in a surprise attack that took advantage of the Russian and Syrian governments’ preoccupation with the front in Aleppo.

French President Francois Hollande, who inaugurated the exhibit alongside UNESCO chief Irina Bokova, spoke about the “terrible, tragic coincidence” of the exhibit’s timing.

“At the time we inaugurate this exhibition, there are bombings over Aleppo….Civil populations are being held hostages and martyrized,” Hollande said. “And there is the return of Daesh in Palmyra.”

Last year, the militants destroyed the Temple of Bel, which dated back to A.D. 32, and the Temple of Baalshamin, a stone block structure fronted by six towering columns — viewing them as monuments to idolatry. They also blew up a non-religious ancient monument, the Arch of Triumph.

Despite the loss of such archaeological treasures, the researcher behind the 3-D imagery, Yves Ubelmann, called the previously unseen photos he collated “positive” because they illustrate how much of Palmyra remains intact. Experts estimate that some 80 percent of the city’s ancient ruins are still unharmed, for now.

A UNESCO world heritage site, Palmyra boasts 2,000-year-old Roman-era colonnades and priceless artifacts. Before the war, it was Syria’s top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

“Instead of responding to extremists with guns, we’re fighting to show that heritage and culture matter,” Bokova said. “They want to destroy our very understanding of humanity, and this shared understanding is the very spirit of this exhibit.”

Ubelmann founded the France-based organization Iconem whose state-of-the art technology is showcased in the exhibit and maps out with arresting realism every nook and cranny of the sites that are found among the Middle East’s most hostile places.

As well as Palmyra, they include Bamiyan in Afghanistan, Khorsabad in Iraq, the Umayyad Mosque in Syria and Kerak Castle in Jordan.

Ubelmann was the first person Syria’s heritage authority sent to Palmyra following its liberation from militants in March because of his expertise and familiarity with the site.

It’s unclear whether President Bashar al-Assad will prioritize retaking the old city and what’s left of its archaeological treasure.

“At least we have these photos in April that can be an archive for the memory of humanity,” Ubelmann said.

Marielle Pic, the curator of the exhibit and director of the Oriental Antiquities Department in the Louvre Museum, expressed remarkable sangfroid at the prospect of Palmyra’s further destruction at the hands of militants.

Archaeologists, she said, must simply “accept it.”

“We know that each era can be a new chapter for a site. Now, Palmyra has entered a dark period,” Pic said. “But for us the destruction is part of the story of an archaeological site. We need to accept it.”

The exhibition, “Eternal Sites, From Bamiyan to Palmyra,” runs until Jan. 9.
Russian airstrikes against ISIS in Palmyra kill 5 people.