Jihadi fighters pull out following Russian offensive only hours after re-entering ancient Syrian city, says monitor

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Russian airstrikes have forced Islamic State fighters from the centre of the Unesco world heritage city of Palmyra in Syria, hours after they had attempted to retake it.

The Russian attack forced the militants to retreat to the outskirts, a local monitoring group said. The Russian defence ministry said the strikes had killed more than 300 Isis fighters and destroyed 11 tanks and vehicles.

The Syrian army also sent reinforcements to the city, reportedly diverting troops from Aleppo.

Isis held Palmyra from May 2015 until it was forced out in March this year. But it started a surprise advance on Thursday and entered the city on Saturday.

Russian war planes carried out more than 60 strikes overnight, halting the offensive, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday. Militants have been pushed to the outskirts where fighting continues, the BBC reported.

“Russian air force planes carried out 64 airstrikes against the positions, convoys and advancing reserves of militants,” a defence ministry statement said. “Over the past night, Syrian government troops with active support of the Russian air force thwarted all terrorist attacks on Palmyra. The attacking militants actively used car bombs with suicide bombers, armoured vehicles and rocket artillery.”

On Saturday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights monitor said IS jihadis had taken back most of the city and surrounded the airport. During its previous Isis occupation Islamists beheaded the archaeological director and destroyed a number of monuments including two 2,000-year-old temples, an arch and funerary towers. The city is considered strategically important by the group because of its proximity to oilfields.

The Isis attack on Palmyra came as the Russian-backed government forces of Bashar al-Assad closed in on the remaining rebel-held area of Aleppo.



On Saturday, medical charities reported that chlorine gas attacks had been reported in the Kallaseh district of Aleppo, with 25 victims reported to have experienced suffocation and difficulty breathing.

In a statement, UOSSM International, which provides medical aid to Syrians, said: “Targeting civilians and medical facilities with chemical weapons is a war crime. [...] We ask the OPCW [Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons] to fulfill its mandate and launch an immediate investigation into this attack and hold perpetrators responsible for these grievous violations to international law.”

Rebel forces said on Saturday they had halted the advance of government forces in the small pockets under their control in Aleppo, possibly due to the redeployment of troops to Palmyra, one commander told the BBC. however, backed by Russian air support, Assad’s forces now reportedly control 93% of Aleppo.

On Saturday the UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, joined world diplomats in Paris to call for civilians to be evacuated from the besieged city and for respect to be shown to Syria’s diminished rebel forces.

The bombardment of Aleppo continued on Saturday with leaders condemning Assad’s “indiscriminate” bombing as a crime against humanity.