Palmyra

The United States has warned the Syrian government not to launch a major new offensive against mostly Islamist insurgents in the southern province of Daraa. With the Syrian government and its Iranian and Russian allies increasingly confident of winning the seven year old war, our Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson has been to a previous battlefield…

It is a strategic and symbolic prize. Capturing the city of Palmyra and its ancient ruins in eastern Syria was a propaganda coup, first for Islamic State and then for the Syrian government when they retook it last March. Now Palmyra – which lies close to large oil fields – may once again have fallen…