Moscow said on Monday that threat of Palmyra’s loss is damage to the entire civilized world, not only to Syria and Russia, noting that lack of US cooperation led to recapture of the ancient city by Takfiri militants.

“We regret that we have yet to completely neutralize their offensive,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the militants return to the fabled city after an eight-month absence.

“We also regret that there still is a lack of coordinated action and real cooperation with other states — with the United States first and foremost — that do not want to cooperate, and this cooperation could allow us to avoid such attacks by terrorists.”

Peskov added that jihadists from neighboring Iraq, had been flooding into Syria.

“Palmyra is a Syrian city. Not Russia is losing Palmyra, but the threat of Palmyra’s loss is damage to the entire civilized world, not to Russia. It is damage to the public image of the entire civilized humanity, [those] who… are not doing anything in reality to fight these international terrorists in the person of the Islamic State,” the Russian official told reporters.

Palmyra’s residents had been evacuated from Palmyra and the Syrian army was engaged in fierce fighting on the city outskirts with ISIL terrorists who had reportedly re-entered the city.

Earlier in March, Syrian troops backed by Russian air strikes and special forces on the ground recaptured the UNESCO world heritage site from ISIL terrorists.

Source: AFP