Qualla: Palmyra Offensive (May 2015)

Palmyra Offensive (May 2015): Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Khaled al-Asaad had spent more than fifty years as head of antiquities in Palmyra. He was 83 years old when ISIS fighters arrived in his city. Three months after the fall of Palmyra, they beheaded him in a public square and hung his body from a column among the ruins he had devoted his life to protecting. His killing, on 18 August 2015, distilled into one act the savagery of an offensive that had consumed Palmyra in just thirteen days that May -- an offensive that gave ISIS control of over half of Syria and placed one of the ancient world's greatest trading cities in the hands of men who considered its monuments idolatrous.

Palmyra Offensive (May 2015): The Road Through Al-Sukhnah

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The offensive began on 13 May 2015, when ISIS launched a two-pronged advance from positions northeast of Palmyra. Their first target was Al-Sukhnah, a town on the strategic highway linking Homs to the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. Militants captured checkpoints at the northern entranc...

Palmyra Offensive (May 2015): Thirteen Days

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By 20 May, ISIS had captured a third of Palmyra. Government forces fell back, losing the airbase by evening. State television claimed the Syrian Army had evacuated civilians during the retreat. Residents told a different story: that officers fled ahead of their own conscripts and...

Palmyra Offensive (May 2015): The Human Cost

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The mass executions began before the city had fully fallen. On 14 May, ISIS killed 26 civilians in Amiriya and Al-Sukhnah for "dealing with the regime" -- ten of them by beheading. The next day, another 23 civilians were executed in Amiriya. Nine were children. After Palmyra fell...

Palmyra Offensive (May 2015): Aftermath and Recapture

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Through the summer, ISIS consolidated its hold and pushed further, capturing Al-Qaryatayn in August and abducting 230 civilians, including at least 60 Christians. By November, militants had reached the outskirts of Salamiyah and were threatening to advance on Homs itself. Strateg...