Sara Essa
After days of switching between different TV channels, trying to watch the news about their beloved city, Ahmed finally tries to calm his ill mother, convincing her that they will soon return to Palmira , which has been lately recaptured by Assad forces, but wishes seem far from the ugly truth.
Ahmad , uses a fake name to hide his true identity , for fear of Assad's prosecution , his family fled to the Syrian capital Damascus at the time when "Daesh" took hold of Palmira, mid- last year, which also carried out executions against regime soldiers, prisoners and civilians, accusing them of collaboration with the Syrian intelligence, In addition to destroying the ancient Temples of Bel and Baalshamin, and the Monumental Arch.
Most of Palmira people have fled the city, after Daesh took hold of it, some them went to regime-held areas in Damarcus , Homs, and some went to areas controlled by Daesh in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.
As for Ahmad , he doesn't expect a quick return to his hometown, because in addition to the mass destruction caused to the city , by the intensive bombing of the Syrian regime and Russian strikes , reports from the city's activists, have revealed that looting of civilians' homes by Assad forces who entered the city, have recently took place ,in addition to practices of brutality against the elderly or those who couldn’t leave the city.
The Syrian government forces took control of the ancient city of Palmyra and the residential city, after bloody battles with Daesh's militants , backed by the intensive Russian air strikes, and with the support of Shiite militias of Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, In addition to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard , Iranian Popular Mobilization Forces , and Hezbollah militias.
During the time when the city was under Daesh's control , it was targeted intensively by hundreds of Russian and Regime's air strikes and surface-to-surface missiles (SSM), reducing the city to rubble, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians , amid a severe shortages of all medical supplies, according to activists.
Observers believe that Daesh has served the Syrian regime twice, first: when it captured the city , and destroyed the temple and a number of monuments by explosives, showing the world its aggressive face , hostile to any human civilization.
Secondly: when the Syrian regime regained control of the ancient city of Palmira, and that gave it the chance to represent itself to the world as the savior , the one and only authority capable of fighting terrorism, the thing which was clearly evident at the press statement made by the official spokesman of the Syrian army , which says : the operation of regaining Palmira , proves to the world that the Syrian army is the only force capable of fighting terrorism".
And despite the global welcoming of the recapture of the historical city, which the Syrian regime sees as a political and a military victory , and prepares him to be part of the international coalition as a key player in in the fight against terrorism, but many globally influential countries returned to recall that Assad has no role in Syria's political future.
However, the truly victim in this battle , are the civilians of Palmira, who roamed the desert , because they were abandoned by the world to face the lesser of two evils.
And the biggest loser is the human civilization which lost one of the most important historical monuments, the cradle of civilization…. under the fire of terrorism and counter-terrorism .
