Al-Qaryatain: Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes, fought the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group out of the town of Al-Qaryatain
on Sunday after gradually surrounding it over the past couple of days.
Government forces entered the
town from a number of directions. An activist group that monitors the Syrian
civil war said government forces are in control of most of the town after ISIL
fighters withdrew to its eastern outskirts.The capture of Al-Qaryatain deprives
ISIL of a main base in central Syria.
Al-Qaryatain had been held by ISIL since August 2015.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been trying to retake Al-Qaryatain and
other pockets of ISIL control to reduce the group's ability to project military
power into the heavily populated western region of Syria, where Damascus and
other main cities are located.
Al-Qaryatain used to be home to a sizeable Christian
population and lies midway between Palmyra and the capital, Damascus. Activists
said that last summer Al-Qaryatain had a mixed population of around 40,000 Sunni
Muslims and Christians, as well as thousands of internally displaced people who
had fled from the nearby city of Homs. Many of the Christians fled the town
after it came under ISIL attack.
Dozens of Al- Qaryatain’s
Christians and other residents have been abducted by the extremists. While the
town was under ISIL control, some were released, whereas others were made to
sign pledges to pay a tax imposed on non-Muslims.
While ISIL extremists blew up and destroyed some of the
world’s most precious relics at Palmyra’s archaeological sites during their ten-month
reign there, the ancient Saint Eliane Monastery near Al-Qaryatain was also
bulldozed and destroyed shortly after ISIL took the town last year.
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