After Palmyra, Al-Qaryatain, Syrian army heads for ISIS-held Sukhneh
After capturing Palmyra and Al Qaryatain from the Islamic State in a week, the Syrian army and allies, backed by heavy Russian air strikes, has set its next target as the town of Sukhneh on the Palmyria-Deir Ez-Zour highway. The predominantly Christian pilgrimage town of Al Qaryatain, which lies midway between Palmyra and Damascus, was found Monday riddled with mines and explosives left by ISIS before it retreated. Most of its 40,000 residents had fled after many were executed or disappeared their 5th century St. Elian monastery bulldozed and their church and cemetery desecrated.