A helo-based co-op to recapture Palmyra from Islamic State militants entrenched within the city.
Available Aircraft:
Mi-8 Hips,
Mi-24 Hinds,
Ka-50 Blacksharks,
SA342 Gazelles,
Su-25 Frogfoots,
MiG-19 Farmers,
MiG-21 Fishbeds,
MiG-29 Fulcrums,
In May of 2015, Islamic State fighters captured the ancient Semitic city of Palmyra, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site, dating back more than ten thousand years to the Neolithic period...
An estimated 5000 jihadis were trucked in from Iraq's neighboring Anbar province to take part in the assault. With the assistance of dozens of captured Syrian and Iraqi armored vehicles, IS fighters managed not only to capture the city but also pushed back Syrian government forces an additional 70km west of Palmyra, besieging Tiyas Air Base for several months.
Colloquially known as the Pearl of the Desert, IS fighters wasted no time in looting and destroying priceless artifacts and antiquities from the ancient city, as well as carrying out their customary atrocities on what little of the population remained behind. Including the beheading of Palmyra's beloved antiquities professor, Khaled al-Asaad, and the mass execution of captured Syrian Army soldiers, carried out in the ancient Roman amphitheater and seen by millions after it was used in an Islamic State propaganda video...
In March of 2016, a joint Russo-Syrian offensive was launched to retake Palmyra. Not because of its cultural significance but because of its strategic importance. Located at a crossroads linking Homs to the west, Raqqa to the north, and Mosul to the northeast, whoever controls Palmyra, presides over not only the vital supply route but the real prize, Syria's vast oil fields to the east.
With the Russians providing the majority of the air support and the Syrian Army leading the ground offensive, IS forces entrenched in Palmyra were left with only two choices. Fight and die, or flee east into the inhospitable desert and try to escape Assad's forces...
