MOSCOW - The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that Russian military advisers had planned and overseen the Syrian army's recapture of the city of Palmyra and that Russian warplanes and special forces had played a decisive role.
The Syrian army said on Thursday it had retaken the ancient city from Islamic State for the second time in a year, with help from allied forces.Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defense Ministry official, told a news briefing in Moscow more than a thousand Islamic State fighters had been killed or wounded in the Palmyra operation.