Islamic State Attacks Palmyra & Takes Ramadi

Islamic State rebels engaged troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad less than a mile outside the ancient city of Palmyra Thursday night. Syrian troops reportedly used the ancient ruins as cover and areas of the city have been damaged through shelling. Palmyra has existed since at least the second millennium BC and was a wealthy trading city over under the Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, Seleucid, and Roman/Byzantine empires. With Islamic States’ devastation of Nimrud and the Maryam Khatoon Mosque, people are right to fear Islamic State destroying Palmyra should it fall into their hands. As mentioned earlier on Free Fire, Islamic State gains funding in part via the illegal sale of artifacts. By destroying some artifacts, the price of others in Islamic State’s hands is greatly increased, allowing the jihadist group to drastically increase the profitability of the artifacts they hold. The black market artifact trade under Islamic State is allegedly worth around $1 billion.

The attack on Tadmur, the modern city near the Palmyra ruins, began Monday with Islamic State forces moving in from the north and east. Tadmur’s military airport is allegedly a location used by Iran to drop off troops and supplies to support the Syrian government, and Tadmur boasts several arms and fuel depots used by government forces, some of the largest in the area. Such supplies would be very useful for Islamic State and could allow the jihadist organization to expand their area of operation further west, perhaps even to Israel.

Islamic State has already seen more success in Iraq lately. This Friday, Islamic State militants seized the main government building in Ramadi, raising their black flag on the roof as they did so. Territory in Ramadi had changed hands multiple times in the nearly two year battle for the city, but Islamic State had never managed to seize the government building until today. Islamic State used six car bombs and an armored bulldozer to reach the fortified city center and take the main government building, though fighting continues in some areas of Ramadi. If Ramadi was to fall to Islamic State, it would be a severe setback to the Iraqi government in the wake of their victory at Tikrit several weeks ago, and to the Iraqi government’s attempt to retake Anbar province. Without holding Ramadi, the Iraqi government has little hope of controlling Anbar.