IS enters Syria’s Palmyra as U.S. takes ‘hard look’ at Iraq strategy

Jihadists from the Islamic State group were in almost full control of Syria’s historic city of Palmyra on Wednesday night after the withdrawal of government forces, a monitor said. If the al-Qaida offshoot takes over Palmyra, it would be the first time it has captured a city directly from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, which have already lost ground in northwestern and southern Syria to other insurgent groups in recent weeks. Syrian pro-government militia evacuated citizens from the city after militants infiltrated it. UNESCO called for an immediate halt to the fighting, and for international efforts to protect the population “and safeguard the unique cultural heritage.”

The fear is for the museum and the large monuments that cannot be moved. This is the entire world’s battle.

Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim

Meanwhile, the United States is taking an “extremely hard look” at its strategy in Iraq after Islamic militants captured the Iraqi town of Ramadi, a top U.S. official said Wednesday. He vowed that the U.S. is determined to help the Iraqi security forces — dealt a punishing blow during the battle for Ramadi — to consolidate and understand what went wrong.

You’d have to be delusional not to take something like this and say, 'What went wrong, how do you fix it, and how do we correct course to go from here?' And that’s exactly what we’re doing.

a top U.S. official

World islamic state