What does ISIS control mean for the people of Palmyra?

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• HARI SREENIVASAN, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR:

  Tonight, ISIS is maintaining control of the city of Palmyra in Syria. Now, we're learning more about how ISIS is treating the people of Palmyra.

  For some insight, we are joined via Skype from Istanbul by Anne Barnard of The New York Times.

  So, this was the first city that ISIS took control over from the Syrian government. Have their tactics changed in what they do when they get into town?

• ANNE BARNARD, THE NEW YORK TIMES:

  Well, it seems there's a certain set of steps that ISIS has honed during the two years it started to accumulate territory in Iraq and Syria.

  They come in. They carry out some well-publicized atrocities — beheadings, attacking people who they think might oppose them and trying to court favor with some other populations and alternate between the two.

  Now, this is the first time that they've taken a town from the government and not from insurgents who had taken it previously.

  So strangely, here, they don't expect to have a rival for the antigovernment mantle, so to speak.

  So, some people are surprised that they have not been harsher with the general population, especially since Palmyra is a place that made its living off the tourist trade and was quite open with the West.

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  In your reporting, you say besides the atrocities and the beheadings and the executions and so forth, they're also trying to take on municipal matters, turning on the water and the fuel.

• ANNE BARNARD:

  Yes. Well, one of their goals is to convince people that they really are a state, and that they can bring administration, that they take over institutions and facilities and provide services.

  So, within hours of coming into town, they had executed people publicly in the streets.

  At the same time, they were trying to carry out very ordinary functions — opening the bakeries, giving bread for free, and fixing the power plant and the water pumps which had been left not working by the retreating soldiers at the same time, bombing started. So, services have been coming in and out.

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  The people of Palmyra are caught in a bit — between a rock and a hard place.

  On the one hand, if they don't cooperate with ISIS, they could meet with death. And on the other hand, really, it's the government that they don't feel a tremendous loyalty to, anyway.

• ANNE BARNARD:

  Yes. I mean, like everywhere in Syria — I visited Palmyra a year ago, so we got to know a lot of people there.

  There's certainly a range of sentiment about the government from pro to anti.

  But Palmyra was a place where there was a local rebellion that was put down in 2012.

  It's an almost entirely Sunni town where the security forces had never felt extremely comfortable, especially those that were from other parts of the country.

  They told us that a year ago they felt that the people — they couldn't trust the local people.

  So, there definitely was antigovernment sentiment there.

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  Is there feeling among some people on the ground that is could be a viable alternative to the Syrian government?

• ANNE BARNARD:

  Well, I asked a guy who say longtime antigovernment activist there. He doesn't really like ISIS.

  He has some relatives who are in ISIS. He said that he was remaining opposed to both ISIS and the government. He said, "You know, people don't really have a choice. They came into town and it was imposed upon them."

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  Are the air strikes by the Syrian government making the Islamic State's case for them?

• ANNE BARNARD:

  Well, yes. People were very afraid of ISIS when they came in, and their main focus was the executions in the streets, and whether they were going to treat the population harshly.

  Now, there's nearly daily airstrikes. People are reporting having lost friends in these air strikes, including government employees, people that might have been pro-government.

  You know, I think now people's immediate source of fear and worry has shifted from the militants on the ground to the warplanes that are overhead.

  But at the same time, they're keeping an eye on whether ISIS will start to apply some of its harsh practices to the general population.

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  All right. Anne Barnard of The New York Times, joining us via Skype from Istanbul, thanks so much.

• ANNE BARNARD:

  Thank you.