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Source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.658089
Assad Regime Retreating on Multiple Fronts
(Ha'aretz) Amos Harel - Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on Saturday for a general Lebanese mobilization against Islamic State, attesting to the difficulties Hizbullah and the Assad regime are having in finding enough people to fight on all the fronts where they are engaged. In eastern Syria, Islamic State has captured the ancient city of Palmyra and apparently massacred Syrian soldiers there. In northwest Syria, Sunni rebels this weekend captured a hospital compound in Jisr al-Shughur where Assad loyalists had held out for weeks. Islamic State is bombarding Damascus on a daily basis and has seized positions in the capital's eastern neighborhoods. Israeli defense officials now see a reasonable chance that sometime in the coming months, Assad will decide to abandon Damascus and focus on defending the Alawite enclave in the north.