Counterattacks Seek To Reverse ISIL's Recent Gains

ISIL has executed 20 Syrian men it accused of being Assad regime soldiers in the ancient Roman theatre ruins of Palmyra,Syria.After ISIL had assembled a crowd in the theatre,the men were shot,according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.The Islamist extremist group had seized the city on 21 May,and has executed at least 217 people so far,the SOHR says,67 of them civilians.There are fears they will also demolish the priceless Roman colonnades and sell off any movable antiquities,as they have done at Iraqi historic sites.
Elsewhere in Syria,the SOHR reports that ISIL has lost ground in Hasakah Province of Northeast Syria.In a 10-day offensive,Kurdish forces early this week liberated 14 Assyrian Christian villages ISIL had seized in February.This was enabled by a major series of air strikes carried out as part of Operation Inherent Resolve by the US and its allies.In the raids from 24-25 May,4 ISIL fighting positions were destroyed,as well as a checkpoint,an excavator,a vehicle borne IED and another vehicle.No civilian casualties were reported from the air strikes.Those participating in the OIR air campaign in Syria include the US,Canada,Bahrain,Jordan,Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Just over the border in Iraq,thousands of Iraqi security forces and allies,including the Hashed al-Shaabi Shiite militias and volunteers,are converging on Ramadi,the capital of Anbar Province that was overrun by ISIL at the same time they seized Palmyra,Syria.The counterattack on Ramadi has already begun,with the ISF retaking the Taesh and Humeyrah districts of the city.They have also entered the Anbar University grounds,but have not yet liberated it from Daesh-the Arab word for ISIL.