Islamic State lays Mines Among Ancient Ruins of Palmyra

Islamic State fighters have planted mines and bombs in the Greco-Roman-era ruins in Palmyra, Syria.

The mining, reported by a monitoring group and Syrian antiquities officials, has prompted fears that the Islamic radicals will destroy the UNESCO world heritage site. IS fighters took control of the city a month ago.

“It is not known if the purpose is to blow up the ruins or to prevent regime forces from advancing into the town,” said Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria’s antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdulkarim, confirmed to AFP that he had received similar reports: “We have preliminary information from residents saying that this is correct, they have laid mines at the temple site.”

The observatory said that Assad government forces had launched heavy airstrikes against the residential part of Palmyra in the past three days, killing at least 11 people. “The regime forces are to the west outside the city, and in recent days they have brought in reinforcements suggesting they may be planning an operation to retake Palmyra,” it said.

A Syrian political source also told AFP that a leading commander had been dispatched to the region to organize an offensive to recapture and secure Palmyra and several key gas fields nearby.

Egypt’s President Expects Assad to fall; Putin Reaffirms Support

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt has said he expects Bashar al-Assad to fall “at any moment,” the Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal reported.

Sisi made the statement during a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister, Tammam Salam, in Cairo earlier this week, saying Lebanon needs to prepare for Assad to be toppled.

At the same time, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed his country’s support for Assad, indicating that he opposed any attempts at using external force to try to halt Syria’s civil war.

“Our fear is that Syria could plunge into the same situation as Libya and Iraq,” Putin said on Friday at Russia’s annual economic forum in St Petersburg. “We don’t want that … in Syria.”

He added that U.S. policy to counter Islamic State had so far had “lamentable” and “tragic” consequences.

“The United States supports Iraq, supports … the army. With two or three strikes IS has captured so many arms … (that) now IS is armed better than the Iraqi army. And all this is happening with the support of the United States,” he said.

The United States has supported rebels seeking to oust Assad and has tried to assemble a moderate Syrian opposition to fight IS. Putin repeated that it was up to the Syrians themselves to decide Assad’s fate.

Turkey warns Against ‘Demographic Shift’ in Northern Syria

Turkey “will not permit its red lines to be crossed” in northern Syria, according to internal government documents obtained by the daily Hürriyet newspaper.

The documents were prepared after Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a terrorist group, captured the key border town of Tal Abyad from IS militants. They warn the Kurds not to force Turkmens and Arabs out of the region.

The government papers, put together by the foreign ministry and presented in two high-level security meetings last week, indicate that Turkey “will continue to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on all platforms, but it will not allow the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and captured the border town Tal Abyad from ISIL last week, to cross Turkey’s red lines in Syria.”

The statement follows strong reaction from Turkish officials, who accused the YPG of committing ethnic cleansing in some parts of northern Syria to facilitate a demographic change so they could claim sovereign rights along the Turkish-Syrian border.

Kurdish leaders have strongly denied any “ethnic cleansing” against Arabs and Turkmens in northern Syria with the intention of establishing a “Kurdish corridor.”

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