THE Fars news agency has reported that ‘At approximately 11:45pm (Damascus Time) on Tuesday night, the Syrian Army’s “Tiger Forces”, backed by Hezbollah, the Desert Hawks Brigade, Iraqi militia forces of Liwa Imam Ali, and the Syrian Marines, imposed full control over the Palmyra (Tadmur) Triangle after advancing Eastward from Jabal Hiyyal.’
According to the battlefield reports from the Palmyra suburbs, the Syrian Army and their allies liberated this strategic area after a fierce battle with the ISIL reactionaries.
With the Palmyra Triangle under their control, the Syrian Armed Forces are now a mile from Palmyra. This is the closest that the government forces have been to this city since their complete withdrawal on May 21st, 2015.
Meanwhile, north of the Palmyra Triangle, the Tiger Forces and Desert Hawks are pressing ISIL defences at Jabal Al-Tar hard. They are reportedly close to capturing this important mountaintop in Western Palmyra.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a supporter of the Syrian opposition, has confirmed that Syrian troops are now only 2km (1.2 miles) south of the Unesco World Heritage-listed site. There is continuous progress by the army from all directions,’ its spokesman was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
‘Syrian forces backed by Russian airstrikes have made major gains to the west of the central city of Palmyra, which is held by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group,’ the report confirms.
ISIL forces seized the site of Palmyra and the adjoining modern town last May, and then beheaded its 82-year-old curator, Khaled al Assad, who had refused to reveal where he had concealed many of the sites treasures.
He and many others have now been avenged and the Syrian masses are naturally elated that their forces are taking this vital Syrian treasure on behalf of the whole of the civilised world.
Things are now looking up all over Syria. Last week, President Assad laid the foundation stone of a vast new building project that has been started to replace some of the facilities that were destroyed in the five-year Western-backed war to overthrow the Syrian government.
The war was to prepare the way for Syria to be divided up among the Gulf state feudalists who are the natural allies of the US and the UK ruling classes. At the same time as this project has been launched, Syria has announced that far from there being food shortages, Syrian agriculture, once the terrorist bombardments are halted, has returned to being extraordinarily productive and fruitful.
In the short peace that has been established, Syria has been enabled to produce enough fruits and vegetables to begin to export just part of it to Russia, which is now seriously considering replacing the vast quantities of imported Turkish produce with fruits and vegetables from Syria.
The truth of the matter is that no Syrians ever wanted to leave their extraordinarily fruitful country with its long history of human civilisation – they were driven out by the US-UK inspired war designed to smash their government so as to redraw the map of the Middle East.
Meanwhile, in the Geneva talks, the Syrian right-wing opposition is insisting that there can be no progress until Assad goes. However, they know full well that having won the war he will win the peace as well, barring another imperialist intervention!
The taking of Palmyra will be a great victory for the people of Syria and for the progressive and working people of the world. Workers in the West must give their full support to the Syrian people, and insist that the Syrian masses must be allowed to decide who is to make up their government – not the US-UK, or even Putin.
The victory of the Syrian people is an inspiration for the people of Palestine and for the oppressed masses of of the Gulf feudal states. They will be next to free themselves from occupation, on the one hand, and feudal bondage on the other.
