Syrian state television says government forces backed by Russian airstrikes have fought their way into Palmyra, as the army tries to recapture the city from Islamic State.
Troops reached the “heart” of Palmyra, the state-run Ikhbariya news channel reported, broadcasting images from just outside the historic city that has been held by Isis since May last year.
State TV quoted its reporter embedded with the troops as saying that around midday on Thursday, the fighting was concentrated near the archaeological site on the south-western edge of the town.
Cracks of gunfire and explosions echoed as the reporter spoke. The TV also aired footage showing soldiers walking and SUVs driving near a building that appears to have been a hotel.
Turkey-based activist Osama al-Khatib, who is originally from Palmyra, denied that Syrian troops had entered the town. He said they were still on the edge of Palmyra and that video seen on Syrian state TV shows an area about three miles from the town. The Syrian government said on Wednesday it had control over two pathways into the city, tightening the noose on Isis fighters in the area.
Palmyra fell to Isis last May, after a one-week siege in which regime forces abandoned the city. The invasion of Palmyra sparked an international outcry over fears the militant group would destroy its monuments, some of the best-preserved from antiquity.
Isis proceeded to do just that, destroying the ancient Temple of Bel and the smaller Temple of Baal Shamin last year, as well as beheading Palmyra’s former antiquities director, Khaled al-Asaad. It also used the Roman amphitheatre to stage a brutal execution video featuring child soldiers shooting dead alleged regime collaborators. A victory in Palmyra would be a significant morale boost for the Assad regime, which is engaged in stalled peace talks in Geneva with representatives of the opposition under UN, US and Russian auspices. It would also be a propaganda victory for Moscow, which launched a campaign to safeguard Assad’s rule last October.
Opposition activists from the city have accused Russian forces of indiscriminate bombing of civilians and destruction of homes and infrastructure.
“Russian planes, missiles and artillery have not stopped bombing the city indiscriminately as part of a scorched earth policy, without differentiating between humans and rocks,” activists with the Palmyra Local Coordination Committee said.
The extent of the Russian campaign in Palmyra raises questions about the scale of the Kremlin’s surprise announcement last week that it was withdrawing the majority of its forces from Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said Russia had carried out dozens of airstrikes on the city on Wednesday alone, and activists from the city put the figure at 40 airstrikes and a ballistic missile launch.
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