A combined force consisting of ground forces from Syria, Russia, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in conjunction with the Russian air force, have retaken the ancient city of Palmyra from the US-backed “rebels” in a highly symbolic victory announced on Easter Sunday.

According to a report on the Syrian national news service, SANA, the city had been retaken after “heavy fighting against the terrorist Daesh organization,” and the “UNESCO World Heritage List city was now stable and free of terrorists.”

Daesh is an acronym for the Arabic phrase al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham, which translates as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

The SANA report said that the Syrian military had completely destroyed Daesh and had taken “absolute control over all parts of the city, including the ancient city and the airport.”

The victory is made even more significant because of the fact that it was made possible by a combined assault of forces which many western governments—in western Europe and the US in particular—vehemently oppose.

The European Union still has sanctions against Russia, and many liberals oppose Vladimir Putin’s government because of its non-toleration of homosexual marriages and propaganda.

Hezbollah is hated by the Jewish lobby because it successfully defended Lebanon against an Israeli invasion in 2006, and of course, the Syrian government is hated because of its opposition to Israel.

Russian ground forces were also involved in the assault on Palmyra. Col. Gen. Aleksandr Dvornikov, deputy commander of the Central Military District in Russia, confirmed to RT that the Special Operations Forces (SOF) are deployed in Syria.

“They conduct ground reconnaissance of pre-selected targets for Russian warplanes, assist in targeting warplanes in remote areas, and perform other tasks,” the general said.

One of the Russian soldiers achieved fame by calling in an airstrike on his own positon after being spotted by ISIS militants after spending nearly a week hidden in the desert near Palmyra, detecting and radioing back important targets and providing coordinates for Russian warplanes to strike.

The SANA report said that Syrian military engineers had immediately begun combing the city, looking for “hundreds of mines and improvised explosive devices” left behind by the terrorists.

The explosives had been placed all around the archaeological monuments, houses, and orchards surrounding the city, the statement continued.

Above: The Temple of Baalshamin, Palmyra, before and during its destruction by ISIS. The temple was built in 131 AD, to commemorate the Roman Emperor Hadrian’s visit to Palmyra two years earlier.

Palmyra had been under ISIS rule since May 2015, during which time they had infamously destroyed many of the ancient and irreplaceable Roman monuments as “heathen blasphemy.”

They also carried out a number of executions in the city, including the beheading of the Syrian scholar and antiquities expert Khalid al-Asaad, who refused to lead the terrorists to a number of hidden Palmyra treasures in return for his life.

They also infamously used the Roman theater in Palmyra for a mass execution of twenty-five captured Syrian army soldiers, employing ISIS children as executioners.

The SANA report said that 450 of the terrorists had been killed in the assault on Palmyra, and “hundreds of others” had retreated eastward. Among those killed in the city were a large number of “foreign mercenaries who had earlier infiltrated the city from Raqqa, Deir al-Zour, and the Iraqi border,” with the intention of totally destroying the ancient city before retreating.

SANA said that the “Russian air force had been intensively involved” in the operation, and many of the fleeing terrorists had been killed by pinpoint strikes against armored vehicles and other ISIS transport.

“The tightening of control over the city of Palmyra is a significant milestone and a starting point to achieve more victories in the war on terrorism,” the SANA report added.

“[The victory] is proof that the Syrian Army is the main actor in the move to confront the terrorist organizations and thwart their sponsors’ schemes,” the SANA statement said, concluding by naming these sponsors: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and “the West.”

As reported earlier, ISIS has been enabled and largely armed by the US and its allies who sent “aid” to the “moderate Syrian rebels.” After receiving money and guns from the fools in Washington DC, the “moderates” all joined ISIS.

Their defeat in Palmyra proves that ISIS could have been defeated a long time ago had the US and Western governments not been beholden to the Jewish lobby who seeks the destruction of Syria.

Below: Russian drone footage of Palmyra taken two days ago at the height of the battle, as released on Russian television.