Syrian army recaptures ‘all of Palmyra’ from Islamic State

Syrian government forces have recaptured Palmyra, state media and a monitoring group said, inflicting a major defeat on the Islamist State group which had controlled the ancient city since May last year.

Syrian television quoted a military source saying the army and its militia allies took “complete control over the city of Palmyra”.

“After heavy fighting during the night, the army is in full control of Palmyra – both the ancient site and the residential neighbourhoods,” a military source told AFP.

Isis fighters pulled out on Sunday morning, retreating to the towns of Sukhnah, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor to the east. “Army sappers are in the process of defusing dozens of bombs and mines planted inside the ancient site,” the source said.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said there was still gunfire in the eastern part of the city on Sunday morning but the bulk of the Islamic State force had pulled out and retreated east, leaving Palmyra under the control of government forces.

For government forces, the recapture of Palmyra, following a three-week campaign by Syrian government forces backed by intensive Russian air strikes, opens up much of Syria's eastern desert stretching to the Iraqi border to the south and Islamic State heartland of Deir al-Zor and Raqqa to the east.

Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said 400 Islamic State fighters died in the battle for Palmyra, which he described as the biggest single defeat for the group since it declared a caliphate in areas of Syria and Iraq under its control in 2014.

Palmyra is also home to some of the most extensive ruins of the Roman empire. Islamic State militants dynamited several monuments last year, but Syria's antiquities chief told Reuters on Saturday that other ancient landmarks were still standing.

“The battle for Palmyra is in the final stages, as fighting is now inside the city itself,” a Syrian military source on the outskirts of Palmyra said earlier on Saturday.

The source said victory in Palmyra would give the regime’s army confidence as it prepares to move towards Raqqa.

The northern city is the de facto capital of Isis’s self-styled “caliphate” which covers swathes of territory in Syria and neighbouring Iraq. With the road linking Palmyra to Raqqa now under army control, Isis fighters in the ancient city can only retreat eastwards towards the Iraqi border.

Isis blew up many of the Palmyra’s most revered buildings when they swept into Palmyra last May. Drone footage released by a Russian television station showed collapsed archaeological structures in the sprawling Greco-Roman old city but with the amphitheatre largely intact.

Even as clashes raged in residential neighbourhoods on Saturday, the ruins remained eerily quiet, without a single fighter in sight.

The military source said the site was likely “rigged with explosives” and being watched by nearby Isis snipers.

Russia was “widely involved in the battle for Palmyra, whether in fighting directly on the ground, with their planes, or by intercepting communication” among Isis fighters, the source said.

Isis overran the Palmyra ruins and adjacent modern city in May 2015, sparking a global outcry and fears for the Unesco world heritage site known as the “Pearl of the Desert”.

The group has since blown up Unesco-listed temples and looted relics that dated back thousands of years.

It used Palmyra’s ancient amphitheatre as a venue for public executions, including the beheading of the city’s 82-year-old former antiquities chief.