DUSHANBE, March 25, 2016, Asia-Plus – International media outlets report that Syrian government forces have entered the ancient town of Palmyra seized by Islamic State (IS) militants last year.
According to
BBC
, officials launched an offensive to retake the city earlier this month, backed by Russian air strikes.
Russian media sources report that a Russian Special Forces officer had been killed in fighting near the city.
The officer was reportedly directing air strikes near the settlement of Tadmor on IS positions when he was surrounded by fighters, they said quoting an official at the Hmeimim air base.
Palmyra is situated in a strategically important area between Damascus and the contested eastern city of Deir al-Zour.
IS seized the ruins of Palmyra and the adjoining modern town in May. It subsequently destroyed two 2,000-year-old temples, an arch and funerary towers, provoking global outrage.
The jihadist group, which has also demolished several world-renowned pre-Islamic sites in neighboring Iraq, believes that such structures are idolatrous.
UNESCO, the UN”s cultural agency, has condemned the destruction as a war crime.
The UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says forces have advanced into a hotel district south-west of the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site. But they were moving slowly because of mines planted by IS,
AFP
news agency reported.
Syrian forces have also made gains to the north of the city, state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syrian state-run news agency
SANA
says the Syrian army has been dismantling bombs and mines laid around Palmyra.
