Syrian army battles to take Palmyra

Syrian state television said the army, which drove Islamic State fighters out of the symbolic and strategic old citadel overlooking the west of the city on Friday, took full control of the northern district of Al-Amiriya. 

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting continued in that area, adding that Islamic State militants had launched counter-attacks — including car bombings — against government forces advancing in the city. 

The recapture of Palmyra, which the Islamist militants seized in May 2015, would mark the biggest reversal for Islamic State in Syria since Russia’s intervention turned the tide of the five-year conflict in President Bashar al-Assad’s favour. Syrian army and allied militia fighters, backed by heavy Russian and Syrian air strikes, have been fighting on the edges of the city for several days. 

The Britain-based Observatory, which monitors the fighting through a network of sources within Syria, reported overnight fighting inside Palmyra in the neighbourhoods of Mutaqa’ideen and AlJami’iya. Recapturing the city would open up eastern Syria.