War Makes Strange Bedfellows

[Trausti]

New documents obtained by Sky News revealed that the Syrian government's recapture of the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State militants was apparently part of a pre-arranged deal that allowed ISIS to remove its heavy weaponry from the city before withdrawing.
Sky News reported that the documents came from a Free Syrian Army group comprised of ISIS defectors originally from Raqqa, ISIS' de facto capital in Syria.

"Withdraw all heavy artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns from in and around Palmyra to Raqqa province," read one document that was dated just before the Syrian Arab Army recaptured Palmyra at the end of March.

Stuart Ramsay, Sky News' chief correspondent, said he asked one of the defectors if ISIS was coordinating its movements directly with forces loyal to Assad — and even with Russia, which backed the assault on Palmyra with heavy airstrikes.

"Of course," the ISIS defector told Ramsay.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/assad-regime-reportedly-struck-ominous-191347084.html

This is kind of disappointing. The recapture of Palmyra seemed a great turning point. But Assad is a survivor; and I suppose this his how survivors survive.

 

[J842P]

I suppose this sort of thing tends to happen in a civil war with several groups all fighting each other.

Although, how trustworthy is someone who is a member of "a Free Syrian Army group comprised of ISIS defectors originally from Raqqa." Quite frankly, Assad sounds like best out of the whole lot. And that's depressing. The people who lose if Assad loses are liberal Muslims, Christians, Jews, and other religious minorities from the region.

 

[Derec]

[wrong f-in thread]

 

[whichphilosophy]

New documents obtained by Sky News revealed that the Syrian government's recapture of the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State militants was apparently part of a pre-arranged deal that allowed ISIS to remove its heavy weaponry from the city before withdrawing.
Sky News reported that the documents came from a Free Syrian Army group comprised of ISIS defectors originally from Raqqa, ISIS' de facto capital in Syria.

"Withdraw all heavy artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns from in and around Palmyra to Raqqa province," read one document that was dated just before the Syrian Arab Army recaptured Palmyra at the end of March.

Stuart Ramsay, Sky News' chief correspondent, said he asked one of the defectors if ISIS was coordinating its movements directly with forces loyal to Assad — and even with Russia, which backed the assault on Palmyra with heavy airstrikes.

"Of course," the ISIS defector told Ramsay.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/assad-regime-reportedly-struck-ominous-191347084.html

This is kind of disappointing. The recapture of Palmyra seemed a great turning point. But Assad is a survivor; and I suppose this his how survivors survive.

This may well be because ISIS could still hold out for several weeks or months resulting in very high casualties and damage. This could have been a compromise solution but its not clear how reliable the sources or their documents (writings) are.
It seems like Assad is the best out of that bunch. Libya is fragmented into different fiefdoms where it once boasted the highest income per capita in the Middle East. Iraq is the same.