palmyra swings back to syrian government control after islamic state militants are evicted middle eastancient city of palmyra swings back to syrian government control 2 2017imagecreditagence francepresse getty imagespalmyra the storied ancient city that was among prewar syrias leading tourist attractions swung back under government control on thursday state media reported as soldiers and their allies evicted islamic state militants who had made a sport out of pilfering the citys antiquitiesthis was the fourth time in the past two years that control of palmyra a unesco world heritage site changed hands between government forces and islamic state fighters who vandalized the citys historic sites and used its famed roman stone amphitheater for public executionsimagecreditsyrian directorategeneral of antiquities and museumsthe groups fighters first seized palmyra in may 2015 routing iraqi security forces who fled in a chaotic retreat the fighters were expelled by syrian forces and their russian allies a year ago in what was seen as an important victory by president bashar alassad but they recaptured palmyra nine months later when the syrians and russians were preoccupied with retaking the northern city of aleppo another front in the warimagecreditvia associated presspalmyra is particularly valuable to the islamic state because the group regards the citys artifacts as sacrilegious symbols control of the city gave islamic state leaders a grand propaganda stage on which to destroy and killafter russian forces helped the syrians expel the islamic state from palmyra the first time the kremlin painted the effort as a victory of civilization over barbarity the russians even organized a televised concert in may from the amphitheater the same one used for executions by islamic state militants a symphony orchestra was flown in for the occasion president vladimir v putin of russia said the performance reflected hope for palmyras revival as the heritage of the whole humanityimagecreditolga balashovarussian defense ministrya photographer for the new york times bryan denton was one of the few outside journalists able to get a close view of the damage done by islamic state fighters during their first nearly yearlong period of occupation last april escorted by militiamen belonging to hezbollah the lebanese shiite militia allied with syrian government forces mr denton chronicled the demolition in a series of photographsimagecreditbryan denton for the new york timesislamic state propagandists considered palmyra a bonanza for promoting their vision of a strictly religious caliphate devoid of homage to other cultures or religions they publicized the work of their demolition teams with graphic photographsimagecreditvia associated presbut palmyra which attracted many thousands of tourists annually until the syrian conflict started in march 2011 began to suffer warrelated damage well before the islamic state arrived in 2015 a visit in 2014 after three years of war revealed scars from mortar shells and pockmarks from bullets as well as illegal digging at ancient tombsimagecreditsergey ponomarev for the new york timesin geneva where the united nations is attempting to hold negotiations to halt the war syrian opposition representatives dismissed the recapture of palmyra by mr assads side