ISIS Threatens the Ancient City of Palmyra in Syria

The week the global media has been declaring that the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria has ‘fallen to ISIS’.
This may be partially true, but as there are very few, if any, independent media reporters on the ground in Palmyra – it’s nearly impossible to know the full extent of the ‘ISIS advance’. Emotive media images like this have been plastered all over the western press agencies and media outlets for the last 5 days running:
Certainly, the US and European media outlets would be keen to show that this specially designated World Heritage site is now in the hands of terrorists – a story which would naturally trigger outrage of western academics and intelligensia, feeding further calls for more western military intervention in the Syria conflict.
Other accounts of the situation vary, like this report by writer Ziad Fadel for SyrianPerspective
‘Tadmur (Palmyra): Even nominally friendly sites like NSNBC are misreporting events in this historically important town in the far east of Homs Governorate.
Many sites are simply making the fatuous statement that the entire city of Palmyra has been overrun by ISIS fanatics and that includes Alalam and Al-Mayaadeen.
Interesting to note that neither news source has anyone on the ground there to report directly…’
Indeed, downplaying ISIS terrorist victories could be damage control PR from Damascus – or it could be closer to the truth than western mainstream coverage. It’s difficult to tell. Still, ISIS relies on the western media to provide publicity for all of its military conquests, so mainstream coverage should always be viewed with an equally, if not much more discerning eye than with seemingly pro-Damascus coverage coming out of Syria.
Still, no movement from western media about the blatant US, Israeli and Saudi/Qatari connections to ISIS and al Nusra terror brigades in Syria and Iraq. This is still a ‘no go’ area for all major US, UK and European media outlets.
Is Palmyra under threat now? Yes, definitely. But to what degree, we cannot accurately tell just yet…

This post was published at 21st Century Wire on MAY 25, 2015.