Inside the city of Palmyra and what is left after the defeat of ISIL there

[webfact]

Inside the city of Palmyra and what is left after the defeat of ISIL there



DAMASCUS: -- The battle for Palmyra is over but the reminders of the dangers are ever present as a team from France 2 discovered. They spent time there with the Syrian army.

The ancient city was booby trapped by the so-called Islamic State with hidden mines planted all around.

“This is a homemade bomb which we have disarmed it was under the road right here. There were ones close by which we could not make safe and so we had to detonate them,” as Syrian soldier explained as he showed the crew the bomb.

The Syrian troops comb the buildings and uncover a room full of all the ingredients needed to make an arsenal of deadly weapons, explosives and home-made bombs.

“It’s a chemical laboratory with all you need to make detonators,” remarked one of the soldiers.

All the ingredients you need to make an explosive called triacetone triperoxide – TATP were on show. It is highly unstable and is what was used by ISIL in the Paris and Brussels attacks.

In the ten months the city was under control of the jihadists many fled. ISIL recruited people to replace the civil servants.

They abandoned material from the state civil court which showed that they could, for example buy a woman for three euros for six months. The youngest was 14 years old.

In other documents there were lists from the Islamic court with disobedience and smoking punished with a sentence of 15 days in jail.

The court was feared by the people. One man said he was jailed for 15 days, denounced by his neighbours. He claimed there were 100 altogether crammed into his cell. The inmates wrote their names on the walls.

“They kept us in a state of permanent terror. They told us you have only two options: decapitation or slaughter,” he told France 2.

He was released, many were not. Mohamed fled the city before the arrival of the jihadists but his son did not want to leave.

“My son told them: I am beyond reproach, Palmyra is my city, I like it. They answered: we will not give you the pleasure of being executed here. They took him to the next city and they shot him there. They filmed the execution and they put it on the internet. What more can I add. May God curse those who came and killed people who had done nothing,” he explained.

He never found the body of his son.

Outside Palmyra to the north Syrian soldiers discovered a mass grave.

“Here we found five men, seven women, eight children and even an infant of six months. They were all buried on top of each other,” one of the soldiers said.

Forty bodies were taken to the military hospital in Homs but others were left here. The team from France 2 saw the remains of bodies. Around 300 people were executed during the occupation of the city by ISIL.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-04-07

[ChiangMaiThai]

Remember when ThaiVisa would actually delete your post and warn you if you posted anything unrelated to Thailand? Seriously lost focus.

[CousinEddie]

Obamas fault.

ISIS came into being when Obama ill advisedly pulled the US tropps out of Iraq.

Right?

[CousinEddie]

Remember when ThaiVisa would actually delete your post and warn you if you posted anything unrelated to Thailand? Seriously lost focus.

True, except in the World News Forum. By the way........

[jaidam]

To keep this in perspective, in approx 15 to 20 years this will be the Sistine Chapel, St.Pauls cathedral. Demographic projections are not emotional and they don't lie. Coming soon to an ancient religious site near you.

[webfact]

Remember when ThaiVisa would actually delete your post and warn you if you posted anything unrelated to Thailand? Seriously lost focus.

The topic runs in the World News forum

/Admin

[CousinEddie]

To keep this in perspective, in approx 15 to 20 years this will be the Sistine Chapel, St.Pauls cathedral. Demographic projections are not emotional and they don't lie. Coming soon to an ancient religious site near you.

Well, there are 20 million Muslims in the EU today. That's less than 4%. By 2050, the whole of Europe (which includes Russia) will be 10% Muslim according to Pew.

By 2050 there will be a new generation of better educated 'towel heads.' Better educated people are more capable of critical thinking.

Religion based on ancient myths is on the way out the door. This medieval nonsense aint gonna last.

Vatican City may be a ghost town though, when the christian religious types finally wise and grasp reality.

[helpisgood]

Obamas fault.

ISIS came into being when Obama ill advisedly pulled the US tropps out of Iraq.

Right?

Others trace the problem to the second Iraqi invasion by the USA and its subsequent flawed occupation which caused a vacuum in Iraq partly and eventually filled by these maniacs. The result, it seems to me, to include a quagmire of competing interests that are not easy for the non-local to discern.

I have not looked into the issue of whether or not Obama should have pulled out those US troops. However, I do understand that after the ill-advised invasion, the available choices were all bad ones to various degrees obscured by the area's unique politics, alliances, rivalries, etc. I am not sure how much of a difference the troops would have made and also how many would have been needed. I do know that a lot of families of American service people are probably better off.

[CousinEddie]

Obamas fault.

ISIS came into being when Obama ill advisedly pulled the US tropps out of Iraq.

Right?

Others trace the problem to the second Iraqi invasion by the USA and its subsequent flawed occupation which caused a vacuum in Iraq partly and eventually filled by these maniacs. The result, it seems to me, to include a quagmire of competing interests that are not easy for the non-local to discern.

I have not looked into the issue of whether or not Obama should have pulled out those US troops. However, I do understand that after the ill-advised invasion, the available choices were all bad ones to various degrees obscured by the area's unique politics, alliances, rivalries, etc. I am not sure how much of a difference the troops would have made and also how many would have been needed. I do know that a lot of families of American service people are probably better off.

I was just throwing out the bait.

GW Bush signed the pullout agreement in 2008, long before Obama took office.

Obama did want to delay the pullout but Iraq insisted and refused to extend immunity to the US soldiers.

Funny, the conservatives want to pin the Middle East on Obama, when in fact Obama was one of the few that voted against that stupid war.

[chuckd]

Obamas fault.

ISIS came into being when Obama ill advisedly pulled the US tropps out of Iraq.

Right?

Others trace the problem to the second Iraqi invasion by the USA and its subsequent flawed occupation which caused a vacuum in Iraq partly and eventually filled by these maniacs. The result, it seems to me, to include a quagmire of competing interests that are not easy for the non-local to discern.

I have not looked into the issue of whether or not Obama should have pulled out those US troops. However, I do understand that after the ill-advised invasion, the available choices were all bad ones to various degrees obscured by the area's unique politics, alliances, rivalries, etc. I am not sure how much of a difference the troops would have made and also how many would have been needed. I do know that a lot of families of American service people are probably better off.

I was just throwing out the bait.

GW Bush signed the pullout agreement in 2008, long before Obama took office.

Obama did want to delay the pullout but Iraq insisted and refused to extend immunity to the US soldiers.

Funny, the conservatives want to pin the Middle East on Obama, when in fact Obama was one of the few that voted against that stupid war.

"Funny, the conservatives want to pin the Middle East on Obama, when in fact Obama was one of the few that voted against that stupid war."

That's rather amazing in itself.

Obama was a member of the Illinois Senate when the vote on the Iraq War Resolution was taken in the US Senate.

He could not have voted for it or against it.

[CousinEddie]

Chuckd. Thanks for the correction.

Illinois Senator Obama "voiced" his opposition. Not voted.

Barak Obama, October 2, 2002: "I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars."

Either way, his judgement was solid and on record.