Peter Apps looks at the complexities of the conflict in Syria and says that while blaming Vladimir Putin is easy, the US and the UK must also take responsibility.

The unwillingness of the United States to work with Russia in Syria contributed to the loss of the ancient city of Palmyra to the Islamic State group, a Moscow spokesman has said.

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The Syrian president has vowed to “liberate” every inch of the country in the same way his troops recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from Islamic State earlier his year.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview that Syria needs a national unity government that would secure the transition to a new constitution, rejecting the “transitional body” demanded by the opposition, which wants him to step down.

The recapture of Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra from IS has brought new revelations of the destruction wreaked by the extremists, who decapitated priceless statues and smashed or looted artifacts in the city’s museum.

COMING, as it does, days after the atrocities in Brussels, and months after the Paris outrages andthe bombing campaign in Turkey and yesterday’s outrage in Lahore the defeat of IS at Palmyra can be hailed as a victory, hopefully the first of many against Islamic extremism.

The Pentagon is moving to increase the number of American troops in Iraq in the wake of new strikes that killed the Islamic State's finance minister and other top leaders of the terror group.

ENGLAND: Dozens of “number two” buses — powered entirely by poo — could be picking up passengers in Bristol next year.

Islamic State militants have destroyed a nearly 2,000-year-old arch in the ancient city of Palmyra, Syrian activists said.

Russian military jets have carried out air strikes in Syria for the first time, targeting what Moscow said were IS positions.

Our schools need to teach Arabic. The act of trying to speak another’s language is a respect, writes Victoria White

Islamic State has blown up three funeral towers in the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria’s antiquities chief said. UNESCO has condemned this destruction of a World Heritage Site as a war crime.

Satellite images have confirmed the destruction of the Temple of Bel, which was one of the best preserved Roman-era sites in the Syrian city of Palmyra, a UN agency said, after activists said the hardline Islamic State group had targeted it.

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A Syrian official in charge of antiquities said his government has not been able to determine how much damage an explosion near the ancient Temple of Bel caused the ancient structure in the militant-controlled city of Palmyra.

Wars bring out the worst and the best in people. We read recently how it can bring out the best in the most dark of situations like what happened to Dr Aidan MacCarthy during World War II, when in the RAF in Singapore he, along with thousands of others, was captured and held as a Prisoner of War for four years in Japanese camps. 

IS militants published photos purporting to show the destruction of a Roman-era temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, an act the UN cultural agency Unesco has called a war crime.

Islamic State militants have destroyed a temple at Syria’s ancient ruins of Palmyra, according to activists.

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Islamic State militants have abducted dozens of Christian families after seizing a strategically located town in the central Syrian province of Homs, a monitor said.

IS yesterday seized a key town in central Syria after heavy clashes with President Bashar Assad’s forces, in the militants’ biggest advance since capturing the historic town of Palmyra in May, Syrian activists said.

The so-called Islamic State says it has destroyed six archaeological pieces from the historic Syrian town of Palmyra after they were confiscated from a smuggler.

The funeral of a Westmeath couple shot dead in last week’s Tunisian beach massacre took place today, single mothers have spoken of the hardship they will face over cuts to lone parent payments this week, Conor McGregor has called out Floyd Mayweather and 100 jobs have been announced for Dublin. Just some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com.

EVEN at the darkest moments of the terror campaigns that scarred these islands, and there were far too many, the hope that protagonists might come to their senses — as they eventually did — always existed.

Islamic State militants have destroyed two historic mausoleums in Palmyra, Syria’s top antiquities official has said.

Iraq’s military needs more intelligence and action from international allies against Islamic State (IS) extremists, the prime minister has said.

BECAUSE of the cyclical nature of power in a democracy, the past is a far more active player in our present than we might always imagine or accept.

Islamic State fighters tightened their grip on the historic city of Palmyra in Syria, days after capturing a provincial capital in neighbouring Iraq, hinting at the momentum of the group, which a monitor says holds half of Syrian territory.

Islamic State (IS) militants have overrun the famed archaeological site at Palmyra, just hours after seizing the central Syrian town, raising concerns the extremists might destroy some of the priceless ruins as they have done in neighbouring Iraq.

Islamic State militants are in full control of the famed archaeological site in the ancient town of Palmyra in central Syria, according to activists.

Marriage Equality Referendum is ‘about us. It’s not going to affect anybody else’; Judge discharges foreman of jury in Sean FitzPatrick trial; and a video of the demolition of Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Just some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com.

Islamic State fighters have pushed into the Syrian town of Palmyra, home to famed 2,000-year-old ruins.

Islamic State militants are said to be advancing toward the historic city of Palmyra in central Syria, seizing an oil field and taking control of the water company on the outskirts.

The UN cultural agency’s chief said she is alarmed by developments in Syria, where clashes with IS militants are getting closer to the ancient city of Palmyra — one of the Middle East’s most famous Unesco world heritage sites.

Satellite images indicate that 290 cultural heritage sites in Syria, whose history stretches back to the dawn of civilisation, have been damaged by its ongoing civil war, the United Nations’ training and research arm (UNITAR) said.

Syrian government forces have launched a counter-attack to recapture a gas field seized by Islamic extremists, activists said, as the death toll from three days of fighting there rose to more than 200.

THE news from Syria is so dreadful, you must forgive me for mentioning something trivial; reports this week say only one bald ibis has returned to Palmyra, the site of the country’s only breeding colony.