(Zaman Al Wasl)- Head of the paramilitary National Defense Forces in Homs was killed on Friday in the ongoing fighting with the Islamic State near the ancient city of Palmyra, pro-regime media accounts said.
M.General Sharaf Shaaban al-Oja, the head of NDF in eastern Homs and the commander of the regime's 64th artillery brigade, was killed in battle of Palmyra citadel.
Regime army recaptured Palmyra's old citadel on Friday. The citadel overlooks some of the most extensive ruins of the Roman empire.
Many of Palmyra's temples and tombs have been dynamited by Islamic State fighters in what the United Nations described as a war crime, although television footage on Friday showed at least some colonnades and structures still standing.
Islamic State fighters were on the retreat in Palmyra as the United States said it likely killed several senior leaders of the militant group this week including its top finance officer.
The double blow to the hardline Islamist group in its self-declared caliphate, which covers huge areas of Syria and Iraq, came three days after Islamic State suicide bombers killed 31 people in Brussels, the worst such attack in Belgian history.
M.General Sharaf Shaaban al-Oja, the head of NDF in eastern Homs and the commander of the regime's 64th artillery brigade, was killed in battle of Palmyra citadel.
Regime army recaptured Palmyra's old citadel on Friday. The citadel overlooks some of the most extensive ruins of the Roman empire.
Many of Palmyra's temples and tombs have been dynamited by Islamic State fighters in what the United Nations described as a war crime, although television footage on Friday showed at least some colonnades and structures still standing.
Islamic State fighters were on the retreat in Palmyra as the United States said it likely killed several senior leaders of the militant group this week including its top finance officer.
The double blow to the hardline Islamist group in its self-declared caliphate, which covers huge areas of Syria and Iraq, came three days after Islamic State suicide bombers killed 31 people in Brussels, the worst such attack in Belgian history.
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