Back in May, ISIS seized the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site.
The world immediately began to panic at the prospect of the city’s destruction at the hands of Islamic State. Since then, there have been various reports which indicate ISIS has in fact decimated a few treasures of antiquity and indeed, some of that destruction reportedly involved tying prisoners to ancient columns and then subsequently blowing them up (that "intelligence" comes from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights so one should take it with a grain of salt).
(an image purporting to show the destruction of ancient ruins)
Palmyra is but one key city the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies are attempting to retake. Others include Aleppo, where Hezbollah and IRGC forces are fighting under cover of Moscow's warplanes to wrest control from a hodgepodge of rebels and militants.
Over the past few weeks, we've brought you images from the front lines including snapshots [2] of Iran's most powerful general rallying Shiite militias ahead of the push north towards Aleppo, visuals from inside the city, and high-def drone footage [3] which gives you an idea of what it's like to live in a war zone.
Below, we present two videos. The first shows pro-regime forces advancing on Palmyra and the second puports to document rebels fighting to keep control of Aleppo.