MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The recapture of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra by Daesh jihadists was supervised by the United States, Syria's President Bashar Assad told the Japanese TBS broadcaster.

"They [Daesh jihadists] could retake Palmyra under the supervision of the Americans, under the surveillance of the American drones; they came through the desert and they occupied Palmyra," Assad said, according to the interview transcript published by Syria's SANA News Agency.

The Syrian president added that the Daesh had been created "under the supervision" of the United States and sponsored by Turkey, so Syria could not expect a genuine fight against Daesh from those countries.

In December 2016, Daesh, outlawed in Russia and many other countries, recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from Syrian government forces. According to various sources, the number of terrorists that took part in the storming of the city reached 5,000 including hundreds of suicide bombers and dozens of armored vehicles. </s> BEIRUT | Islamic State militants re-occupied Palmyra on Sunday, taking the ancient central city from government troops in a major advance after a year of setbacks in Syria and neighboring Iraq, a Syrian government official and the group said.

In retaking Palmyra, the extremist group appeared to be taking advantage of the Syrian and Russian preoccupation with Aleppo, timing its attack to coincide with a massive government offensive to capture the last remaining opposition-held neighborhoods in the northern city.

This Thursday, April 14, 2016, file photo shows the ancient city of Palmyra in the central city of Homs, Syria, Thursday, April 14, 2016. Russia says its air force has helped Syrian troops repulse an Islamic State attack on Palmyra, but opposition activists say the extremists have seized areas on the outskirts of the town, including a historic castle that overlooks ancient ruins. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File) This file photo taken Friday, April 8, 2016 and provided by Russian Defense Ministry press service, shows the ancient ruins in Palmyra, Syria. Russia says its air force has helped Syrian troops repulse an Islamic State attack on Palmyra, but opposition activists say the extremists have seized areas on the outskirts of the town, including a historic castle that overlooks ancient ruins. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service Photo via AP, File) This image posted online on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, by supporters of the Islamic State militant group on an anonymous photo sharing website, purports to show a convoy of vehicles of IS driving in a desert area of east of Palmyra city, in Homs, Syria. Syrian opposition activists say the Islamic State group has regained control of the ancient town of Palmyra despite a wave of Russian airstrikes in a major advance after a year of setbacks for the group in Syria and Iraq. The Arabic caption reads, "Islamic Caliphate soldiers head to the bases of the Nussayari (derogative for Alawite Syrian) in the deserted base near T-4 military air base." (Militant Photo via AP) This image posted online on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, by supporters of the Islamic State militant group on an anonymous photo sharing website, purports to show a gunman firing an anti-tank missile at Syrian troops north of Palmyra city, in Homs Provence, Syria. Syrian opposition activists say the Islamic State group has regained control of the ancient town of Palmyra despite a wave of Russian airstrikes in a major advance after a year of setbacks for the group in Syria and Iraq. The Arabic caption reads, "The moment of targeting checkpoints of the Nussayari, (derogative for Alawite Syrian) army with a guided missile in Jazal area." (Militant Photo via AP) This image posted online on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, by supporters of the Islamic State militant group on an anonymous photo sharing website, purports to show a tank operated by the group firing at Syrian troops east of Palmyra city, in Homs provence, Syria. Syrian opposition activists say the Islamic State group has regained control of the ancient town of Palmyra despite a wave of Russian airstrikes in a major advance after a year of setbacks for the group in Syria and Iraq. The Arabic caption reads, "Targeting checkpoints and bases of the Nussayari," a derogative term for for Alawite Syrians, "with tank fire inside the deserted base." (Militant Photo via AP) This image posted online on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, by supporters of the Islamic State militant group on an anonymous photo sharing website, purports to show a gun-mounted vehicle operated by the group firing at Syrian troops north of Palmyra city, in Homs, Syria. Syrian opposition activists say the Islamic State group has regained control of the ancient town of Palmyra despite a wave of Russian airstrikes in a major advance after a year of setbacks for the group in Syria and Iraq. The Arabic caption reads: "Targeting checkpoints of the Nussayari (derogative for Alawite Syrian) army in Jazal with heavy weapons." (Militant Photo via AP) This image made from militant video posted online by the Aamaq News Agency, a media arm of the Islamic State group on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, purports to show gun-mounted vehicles operated by the group firing at Syrian troops in the Hayan mountain south of Palmyra, in Homs province, Syria. Syrian opposition activists say the Islamic State group has regained control of the ancient town of Palmyra despite a wave of Russian airstrikes in a major advance after a year of setbacks for the group in Syria and Iraq. (Militant Video via AP) This image made from militant video posted online by the Aamaq News Agency, a media arm of the Islamic State group, purports to show a general view of the ancient ruins of the city of Palmyra, in Homs province, Syria, Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016. Syrian opposition activists say the Islamic State group has regained control of the ancient town of Palmyra despite a wave of Russian airstrikes in a major advance after a year of setbacks for the group in Syria and Iraq. (Militant video via AP)

Palmyra, with its towering 2,000-year-old ruins, holds mostly symbolic meaning in the wider Syrian civil war, although its location in central Syria gives it some strategic significance as well.

Islamic State militants re-entered the city on Saturday for the first time since they were expelled by Syrian and Russian forces amid much fanfare nine months ago. The government’s first important win against the Islamic State group in the internationally renowned ancient city gave Damascus the chance to try to position itself as part of the global anti-terrorism campaign.

The militants had spent 10 months in Palmyra, during which they dynamited a number of temples and destroyed other artifacts.

Sunday’s takeover came hours after government troops and Russian air raids pushed the group out the city’s parameters. IS militants then regrouped and attacked the city from multiple fronts, forcing government troops to retreat. Palmyra opposition activists said the militants were going door to door in the city, looking for remnants of government forces.

Homs Province Governor Talal Barazi told the pan-Arab Mayadeen news channel that the IS attack on Palmyra is a “desperate” reaction to the Syrian government military “victories” on the ground. He said the forces that support terrorism including western countries, Saudi Arabia and Qatar wanted to “realize some type of gain” and chose Palmyra because of its international reputation.

Scores of Syrian troops have reportedly been killed in fighting around Palmyra in the last few days. While the battles are a distraction from the fight in Aleppo, they are unlikely to affect the government’s final push on the last rebel-held Aleppo neighborhoods. By Sunday evening, there was no sign that the army was shifting significant resources away from Aleppo for the fighting in central Syria.

The government and its allies have reportedly mobilized some 40,000 fighters for Aleppo.

“I don’t think the regime would withdraw forces from Aleppo to Palmyra and risk losing Aleppo,” said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the opposition monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “I think the regime’s priority now is to finish the battle for Aleppo before the end of the month for sure. As for Palmyra, the whole international community would stand by it against IS.”

Over the last year, IS has suffered a string of defeats in both Syria and Iraq, losing several towns and cities it had captured in 2014. It is now under attack in Mosul, the last major urban center it controls in Iraq. A Kurdish-led Syrian force, backed by the U.S., is also pushing toward Raqqa, the group’s de-facto capital in Syria, from the north. Meanwhile, Turkey is backing Syrian opposition fighters who have reached the outskirts of al-Bab, the IS stronghold in northern Syria.

In going for Palmyra, IS picked a soft target to demonstrate that despite its battlefield losses, it retains the ability to carry out large attacks.

Mohammed Hassan al-Homsi, a native of the city who runs Palmyra News Network, said IS is steering away from north Syria where the anti-IS international coalition and Turkey have focused their fight. With its losses in Iraq and elsewhere in Syria, the militants are eyeing new terrain. They chose Palmyra for its desert terrain linked to Iraq’s and its surrounding oil and gas fields, al-Homsi said.

State news agency SANA, quoting an unnamed military official, reported that the militant group received reinforcements from Raqqa, enabling it to attack with “large numbers” against military checkpoints around the city.

Russia’s Defense Ministry laid some of the blame at the feet of the U.S.-led coalition, saying it had scaled down its operation against Raqqa and allowed thousands of IS fighters to escape from Mosul. The ministry statement said more than 4,000 Islamic State fighters have been deployed for the Palmyra takeover, implying that the militants attacking Palmyra had recently left Mosul.

The Observatory and the Palmyra Coordination group said IS militants fought their way into the city in a multi-pronged assault, forcing government forces to retreat to the south. A map distributed by the Observatory shows the areas controlled by IS to extend east, south and north of Palmyra, encompassing a number of strategic hills around the city and expanding the group’s presence in rural Homs. Palmyra lies in Syria’s largest province, Homs, which is mostly under government control.

Osama al-Khatib, of the activist-run Palmyra Coordination group which keeps in touch with residents in the city, said remaining government and allied troops were escaping from the southwestern edge of the city where the ancient ruins are. He said the few remaining families in the city are also attempting to escape. Al-Homsi’s Palmyra News Network said intensive airstrikes followed the IS takeover of the city. The group said IS fired on fleeing civilians while the group expanded its presence in rural areas around Palmyra.

In a video by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency, IS fighters were shown roaming a main square in the city that appears deserted at the foothills of the citadel that overlooks the ruins and the Palmyra Museum.

Russia had earlier claimed to have repelled an IS attack on Palmyra, saying it had launched 64 airstrikes overnight that killed 300 militants. But hours later, the activists said IS had seized a castle just outside the town that overlooks its famed Roman-era ruins.

Palmyra was a major tourist attraction before the civil war broke out in 2011 and is home to world-famous Roman ruins.

The capture of Palmyra last year by Syrian troops and Russia air force was seen as a major triumph for the government, which had previously had little success in battling the extremist group. After taking Palmyra, the two states turned their attention to wiping out the internal opposition in Damascus and Aleppo. After tightening the siege on the eastern part of Aleppo city, the most prized urban stronghold for the opposition, government and allied troops have been steadily carving into the besieged enclave in a ground offensive that began in late November.

Syrian media reported Sunday that of the original 45 square kilometers (17 square miles) rebel-held enclave, only 7 square kilometers (4 square miles) remain in opposition hands.

Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut, Howard Amos and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed to this report. </s> Syrian government forces recaptured Palmyra from the Islamic State group on Thursday, scoring a victory against the militants who had seized the historic town in December for the second time, a Syrian military statement said.

The military said troops gained full control of the desert town in central Syria following a series of military operations carried out with the help of Russian air cover and in cooperation with “allied and friendly troops” — shorthand for the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. Hezbollah is fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in the civil war.

IS defenses around the town had begun to erode on Sunday, with the government troops reaching Palmyra’s outskirts on Tuesday. The SANA news agency reported earlier that government troops had entered the town’s archaeological complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around mi-day, then the town itself, as IS militants fled the area.

This is the government’s second campaign to retake the desert town. It seized Palmyra from Islamic State militants last March only to lose it again 10 months later.

Before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011, Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed by his defense minister that Syrian troops had gained control of Palmyra, with support from Russian warplanes.

The Syrian government’s push has relied on ground support from Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group and Russian air cover, according to Hezbollah’s media outlets.

The town, according to Mohammed Homsi, the director of the activist-run Palmyra News Network, is almost entirely deserted. Islamic State fighters reportedly evacuated the last of their relatives on Sunday, he said.

Archeologists have decried what they say is extensive damage to its priceless ruins.

Drone footage released by Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier this month showed new damage to the facade of Palmyra’s Roman-era theater and the adjoining Tetrapylon — a set of four monuments with four columns each at the center of the colonnaded road leading to the theater.

A 2014 report by a U.N. research agency disclosed satellite evidence of looting while the ruins were under Syrian military control. Opposition factions have also admitted to looting the antiquities for funds.

The IS group has twice used the town’s Roman theater as a stage for mass killings, most recently in January, when they shot and beheaded a number of captives they said had tried to escape their December advance. Other IS killings were said to have taken place in the courtyard of the Palmyra museum and in a former Russian base in the town.

The developments in Palmyra came against the backdrop of Syrian peace talks underway in Geneva, which have been without any tangible breakthroughs so far. Diplomats and negotiators have set their sights on modest achievements in the latest round of talks, after a week of discussions centering on setting an agenda for future talks.

On Thursday, U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura was due for another round of meetings with both the government delegation and opposition groups.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters Wednesday that “the parties have agreed to … discuss all issues in a parallel way, on several tracks.”

After a Damascus request, the issue of terrorism is also on the table, he had said. Russia is a key sponsor of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government in Damascus.

A top Syrian opposition negotiator, Nasr al-Hariri, said the talks would likely culminate in a closing ceremony on Friday and the parties may be back in Geneva for further discussions in a few weeks.

Setting the agenda and strategy to guide discussions has proven difficult as the main conflicting parties dig in their heels over form and semantics.

In Turkey, the country’s foreign minister said that with the completion of an operation to retake the IS-held town of al-Bab in northern Syria, Turkish troops will head to the Syrian town of Manbij next, to oust U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara views as terrorists and a threat to Turkey.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Turkey would not shy away from attacking the Kurdish group that dominates the Syria Democratic Forces, which captured Manbij last year after weeks of deadly fighting with IS.

He renewed calls for the new U.S. administration not to support the Kurdish forces. Cavusoglu stressed that an operation to take Manbij had not started yet, but acknowledged that skirmishes between Turkish-backed forces and the Kurdish fighters may have occurred.

That front line in northern Syria was further complicated by a concurrent announcement by the Syrian Kurdish side on Thursday that they had agreed with Russia to withdraw from some of the territory between al-Bab and Manbij, to make room for a buffer.

The Manbij Military Council, part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said that under the deal, they will withdraw from a front line as the rival Turkish-backed forces near the Euphrates River. This will allow Syrian government forces to create a buffer between them.

However, Cavusoglu denied any such agreement was reached.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. The Turkish and Syrian authorities have long regarded each other with thinly-veiled hostility. </s> BEIRUT: Syrian troops backed by Russian jets completed the recapture of the historic city of Palmyra from the Islamic State group Thursday, the Kremlin and the army said, in another blow to the jihadists.

Bolstered by air strikes and ground troops from their ally Moscow, Syrian forces battled through the desert for weeks to reach Palmyra.

The oasis city has traded hands several times during Syria’s six-year civil war and become a symbol of IS’ wanton destruction of priceless cultural heritage in areas under its control.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said the jihadists had totally withdrawn from the desert city but not before mining several areas.

“The Syrian army is still clearing neighborhoods of mines and has not spread out into the whole city yet,” said its director Rami Abdel Rahman.

An army statement carried on state news agency SANA said its forces had “regained control over Palmyra and surrounding territory after a series of successful military operations.”

IS has suffered a string of setbacks since taking over swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014, and its two main strongholds of Mosul and Raqa both face assaults by forces backed by a US-led coalition.

The jihadists first seized Palmyra in May 2015 and began to systematically destroy and loot the UNESCO world heritage site’s monuments and temples.

They were driven out in March 2016 but recaptured the city in December when the government was focused on seizing rebel-held east Aleppo.

Before IS first entered the city, Palmyra boasted temples, colonnaded alleys and elaborately decorated tombs that were among the best preserved classical monuments in the Middle East.

But many of the structures have been destroyed and much of the heritage looted for sale on the black market.

Moscow’s support has been key in the Syrian army’s Palmyra push, and its warplanes continued to bombard IS positions inside and near the city on Thursday, the Observatory reported.

A decades-old ally of Damascus, Moscow launched an air campaign in September 2015 in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

After losing ground in the early years of the war, Assad’s regime has regained significant territory—including by pushing rebel forces out of second city Aleppo last year—in large part to Russian support.

Turkey threatens US allies

 On another battle front against IS, fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced they would cede several villages to the government as part of a deal brokered by Russia to avoid conflict with Turkey.

Turkey launched a cross-border operation in late August that it said aimed to counter both IS and the SDF, which is dominated by Kurdish fighters that Ankara sees as “terrorists.”

The surprise announcement by the SDF marks the first time that US-supported fighters has offered to cede territory to Assad’s forces.

It said the territory to be handed over lay between the towns of Manbij and Al-Bab, which Turkish-backed fighters captured last week from IS, to create a buffer zone between them.

Ankara meanwhile renewed its threat to bomb Kurdish fighters unless they withdrew from Manbij, a former bastion of IS that is now under SDF control.

The Turkey-backed rebels launched their advance on Manbij on Wednesday, initially seizing two villages but losing them to the SDF by Thursday.

The Observatory said clashes were ongoing southwest of Manbij late Thursday.

The profusion of forces operating in Syria has muddled the battlefield and on Wednesday a US general said Russian warplanes had bombed SDF fighters mistakenly believing they were IS.

The Russian defence ministry denied carrying out the air strikes.

Sputtering peace talks

 Russia on Thursday accused Syria’s main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), of “sabotaging” sputtering UN-led Syrian peace talks in Geneva and questioned their ability to reach a deal.

“The results of the first days of the intra-Syrian dialogues, as before, raise questions over the ability of the Syrian opposition representatives to reach a deal,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Moscow had earlier called for “terrorism” to be added to the agenda of the talks, which have so far focused on three topics: governance, the constitution, and elections.

But the HNC late Wednesday refused, having previously accused Assad’s regime of wanting to turn the focus to terrorism as a distraction from political questions.

“Progress in the Geneva round must not be held hostage by the Riyadh platform,” lead Syrian negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari told reporters, referring to the Saudi-backed HNC.

The Geneva talks, the fourth round of UN-sponsored negotiations in the war, are expected to end by the weekend, though no formal timeframe has been set. </s> BEIRUT — Syria’s military announced on Thursday it has fully recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State as the militants’ defenses crumbled and ISIS fighters fled in the face of artillery fire and intense Russia-backed airstrikes.

The development marks the third time that the town — famed for its priceless Roman ruins and archaeological treasures ISIS had sought to destroy — has changed hands in one year.

It was also the second blow for the Islamic State in Syria in a week, after Turkish-backed opposition fighters seized the Syrian town of al-Bab from the militants on Feb. 23, following a grueling three-month battle. In neighboring Iraq, the Sunni extremist group is fighting for survival in its last urban bastion in the western part of the city of Mosul.

For the Syrian government, the news was a welcome development against the backdrop of peace talks underway with the opposition in Switzerland.

“You are all invited to visit the historic city of Palmyra and witness its beauty, now that it has been liberated,” the Damascus envoy to the U.N.-mediated talks, Bashar al-Ja’afari, told reporters in Geneva.

“Of course, counterterrorism operations will continue until the last inch of our territory is liberated from the hands of these foreign terrorist organizations, which are wreaking havoc in our country,” he added.

The Damascus military statement said troops gained full control of the desert town in central Syria following a series of military operations carried out with the help of Russian air cover and in cooperation with “allied and friendly troops” — government shorthand for members of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group who are fighting along Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

ISIS defenses around Palmyra had begun to erode on Sunday, with government troops reaching the town’s outskirts on Tuesday. The state SANA news agency reported earlier that government troops had entered the town’s archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around midday, then the town itself, as ISID militants fled the area.

This is the Syrian government’s second campaign to retake Palmyra. It seized the town from Islamic State militants last March only to lose it again 10 months later.

Before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011, Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed by his defense minister that Syrian troops had gained control of Palmyra, with support from Russian warplanes.

The Syrian government’s push has relied on ground support from Hezbollah and Russian air cover, according to Hezbollah’s media outlets.

Archeologists have decried what they say is extensive damage to its ruins.

Drone footage released by Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier this month showed new damage to the facade of Palmyra’s Roman-era theater and the adjoining Tetrapylon — a set of four monuments with four columns each at the center of the colonnaded road leading to the theater.

A 2014 report by a U.N. research agency disclosed satellite evidence of looting while the ruins were under Syrian military control. Opposition factions have also admitted to looting the antiquities for funds.

ISIS militants have twice used the town’s Roman theater as a stage for mass killings, most recently in January, when they shot and beheaded a number of captives they said had tried to escape their December advance. Other ISIS killings were said to have taken place in the courtyard of the Palmyra museum and in a former Russian base in the town.

The developments in Palmyra came against the backdrop of the talks in Geneva, which have been without any tangible breakthroughs so far. Diplomats and negotiators have set their sights on modest achievements in the latest round, after a week of discussions centering on setting an agenda for future talks.

On Thursday, U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura held another round of meetings with both the government delegation and opposition groups.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters Wednesday that “the parties have agreed to … discuss all issues in a parallel way, on several tracks.”

After a Damascus request, the issue of terrorism is also on the table, he had said. Russia is a key sponsor of Assad’s government.

A top Syrian opposition negotiator, Nasr al-Hariri, said the talks would likely culminate in a closing ceremony on Friday and the parties may be back in Geneva for further discussions in a few weeks.

Setting the agenda and strategy to guide discussions has proven difficult as the main conflicting parties dig in their heels over form and semantics.

In Turkey, the country’s foreign minister said that with the completion of an operation to retake the ISIS-held town of al-Bab in northern Syria, Turkish troops will head to the Syrian town of Manbij next, to oust U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara views as terrorists and a threat to Turkey.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Turkey would not shy away from attacking the Kurdish group that dominates the Syria Democratic Forces, which captured Manbij last year after weeks of deadly fighting with ISIS.

He renewed calls for the new U.S. administration not to support the Kurdish forces. Cavusoglu stressed that an operation to take Manbij had not started yet, but he acknowledged that skirmishes between Turkish-backed forces and the Kurdish fighters may have occurred.

That front line in northern Syria was further complicated by a concurrent announcement by the Syrian Kurdish side on Thursday that they had agreed with Russia to withdraw from some of the territory between al-Bab and Manbij, to make room for a buffer.

The Manbij Military Council, part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said that under the deal, they will withdraw from a front line with rival Turkish-backed forces near the Euphrates River. This will allow Syrian government forces to create a buffer between them.

However, Cavusoglu denied any such agreement was reached.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. The Turkish and Syrian authorities have long regarded each other with thinly veiled hostility. </s> Sign up for one of our email newsletters.

BEIRUT — Syria's military announced Thursday that it has fully recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group as the terrorists' defenses crumbled and ISIS fighters fled in the face of artillery fire and intense Russia-backed airstrikes.

The development marks the third time that the town — famed for its priceless Roman ruins and archaeological treasures ISIS had sought to destroy — has changed hands in one year.

It was also the second blow for the Islamic State group in Syria in a week, after Turkish-backed opposition fighters seized the Syrian town of al-Bab from the extremists on Feb. 23 at the end of a grueling three-month battle. In neighboring Iraq, the Sunni extremist group is fighting for survival in its last urban bastion in the western part of the city of Mosul.

For the Syrian government, the news was a welcome development against the backdrop of peace talks underway with the opposition in Switzerland.

“You are all invited to visit the historic city of Palmyra and witness its beauty, now that it has been liberated,” the Damascus envoy to the U.N.-mediated talks, Bashar al-Ja'afari, told reporters in Geneva.

“Of course, counterterrorism operations will continue until the last inch of our territory is liberated from the hands of these foreign terrorist organizations, which are wreaking havoc in our country,” he added.

The Damascus military statement said troops gained full control of the desert town in central Syria following a series of military operations carried out with the help of Russian air cover and in cooperation with “allied and friendly troops” — government shorthand for members of Lebanese militant Hezbollah group who are fighting along Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

ISIS defenses around Palmyra had begun to erode Sunday, with government troops reaching the town's outskirts Tuesday. The state SANA news agency reported earlier that government troops had entered the town's archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around mid-day, then the town itself, as IS militants fled the area.

This is the Syrian government's second campaign to retake Palmyra. It seized the town from Islamic State militants last March only to lose it again 10 months later.

Before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011, Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed by his defense minister that Syrian troops had gained control of Palmyra, with support from Russian warplanes.

The Syrian government's push has relied on ground support from Hezbollah and Russian air cover, according to Hezbollah's media outlets.

Archeologists have decried what they say is extensive damage to its ruins.

Drone footage released by Russia's Defense Ministry last month showed new damage to the facade of Palmyra's Roman-era theater and the adjoining Tetrapylon — a set of four monuments with four columns each at the center of the colonnaded road leading to the theater.

A 2014 report by a U.N. research agency disclosed satellite evidence of looting while the ruins were under Syrian military control. Opposition factions have also admitted to looting the antiquities for funds.

ISIS terrorists have twice used the town's Roman theater as a stage for mass killings, most recently in January, when they shot and beheaded a number of captives they said had tried to escape their December advance. Other ISIS killings were said to have taken place in the courtyard of the Palmyra museum and in a former Russian base in the town.

The developments in Palmyra came against the backdrop of the talks in Geneva, which have been without any tangible breakthroughs so far. Diplomats and negotiators have set their sights on modest achievements in the latest round, after a week of discussions centering on setting an agenda for future talks.

On Thursday, U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura held another round of meetings with both the government delegation and opposition groups.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters Wednesday that “the parties have agreed to ... discuss all issues in a parallel way, on several tracks.”

After a Damascus request, the issue of terrorism is also on the table, he had said. Russia is a key sponsor of Assad's government.

A top Syrian opposition negotiator, Nasr al-Hariri, said the talks would likely culminate in a closing ceremony Friday and the parties may be back in Geneva for further discussions in a few weeks.

Setting the agenda and strategy to guide discussions has proven difficult as the main conflicting parties dig in their heels over form and semantics.

In Turkey, the country's foreign minister said that with the completion of an operation to retake the ISIS-held town of al-Bab in northern Syria, Turkish troops will head to the Syrian town of Manbij next, to oust U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara views as terrorists and a threat to Turkey.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Turkey would not shy away from attacking the Kurdish group that dominates the Syria Democratic Forces, which captured Manbij last year after weeks of deadly fighting with ISIS.

He renewed calls for the new U.S. administration not to support the Kurdish forces. Cavusoglu stressed that an operation to take Manbij had not started yet, but acknowledged that skirmishes between Turkish-backed forces and the Kurdish fighters may have occurred.

That front line in northern Syria was further complicated by a concurrent announcement by the Syrian Kurdish side on Thursday that they had agreed with Russia to withdraw from some of the territory between al-Bab and Manbij, to make room for a buffer.

The Manbij Military Council, part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said that under the deal, they will withdraw from a front line with rival Turkish-backed forces near the Euphrates River. This will allow Syrian government forces to create a buffer between them.

However, Cavusoglu denied any such agreement was reached.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. The Turkish and Syrian authorities have long regarded each other with thinly-veiled hostility. </s> (BEIRUT)—Syria's military announced on Thursday it has fully recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group as the militants' defenses crumbled and ISIS fighters fled in the face of artillery fire and intense Russia-backed airstrikes.

The development marks the third time that the town—famed for its priceless Roman ruins and archaeological treasures ISIS had sought to destroy—has changed hands in one year.

It was also the second blow for the Islamic State group in Syria in a week, after Turkish backed opposition fighters seized the Syrian town of al-Bab from the militants on Feb. 23, following a grueling three month battle. In neighboring Iraq, the Sunni extremist group is fighting for survival in its last urban bastion in the western part of the city of Mosul.

For the Syrian government, the news was a welcome development against the backdrop of peace talks underway with the opposition in Switzerland.

"You are all invited to visit the historic city of Palmyra and witness its beauty, now that it has been liberated," the Damascus envoy to the U.N.-mediated talks, Bashar al-Ja'afari, told reporters in Geneva.

"Of course, counterterrorism operations will continue until the last inch of our territory is liberated from the hands of these foreign terrorist organizations, which are wreaking havoc in our country," he added.

The Damascus military statement said troops gained full control of the desert town in central Syria following a series of military operations carried out with the help of Russian air cover and in cooperation with "allied and friendly troops" — government shorthand for members of Lebanese militant Hezbollah group who are fighting along Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

IS defenses around Palmyra had begun to erode on Sunday, with government troops reaching the town's outskirts on Tuesday. The state SANA news agency reported earlier that government troops had entered the town's archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around mid-day, then the town itself, as IS militants fled the area.

This is the Syrian government's second campaign to retake Palmyra. It seized the town from Islamic State militants last March only to lose it again 10 months later.

Before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011, Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed by his defense minister that Syrian troops had gained control of Palmyra, with support from Russian warplanes.

The Syrian government's push has relied on ground support from Hezbollah and Russian air cover, according to Hezbollah's media outlets.

Archeologists have decried what they say is extensive damage to its ruins.

Drone footage released by Russia's Defense Ministry earlier this month showed new damage to the facade of Palmyra's Roman-era theater and the adjoining Tetrapylon — a set of four monuments with four columns each at the center of the colonnaded road leading to the theater.

A 2014 report by a U.N. research agency disclosed satellite evidence of looting while the ruins were under Syrian military control. Opposition factions have also admitted to looting the antiquities for funds.

IS militants have twice used the town's Roman theater as a stage for mass killings, most recently in January, when they shot and beheaded a number of captives they said had tried to escape their December advance. Other ISIS killings were said to have taken place in the courtyard of the Palmyra museum and in a former Russian base in the town.

The developments in Palmyra came against the backdrop of the talks in Geneva, which have been without any tangible breakthroughs so far. Diplomats and negotiators have set their sights on modest achievements in the latest round, after a week of discussions centering on setting an agenda for future talks.

On Thursday, U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura held another round of meetings with both the government delegation and opposition groups.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters Wednesday that "the parties have agreed to ... discuss all issues in a parallel way, on several tracks."

After a Damascus request, the issue of terrorism is also on the table, he had said. Russia is a key sponsor of Assad's government.

A top Syrian opposition negotiator, Nasr al-Hariri, said the talks would likely culminate in a closing ceremony on Friday and the parties may be back in Geneva for further discussions in a few weeks.

Setting the agenda and strategy to guide discussions has proven difficult as the main conflicting parties dig in their heels over form and semantics.

In Turkey, the country's foreign minister said that with the completion of an operation to retake the ISIS-held town of al-Bab in northern Syria, Turkish troops will head to the Syrian town of Manbij next, to oust U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara views as terrorists and a threat to Turkey.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Turkey would not shy away from attacking the Kurdish group that dominates the Syria Democratic Forces, which captured Manbij last year after weeks of deadly fighting with ISIS.

He renewed calls for the new U.S. administration not to support the Kurdish forces. Cavusoglu stressed that an operation to take Manbij had not started yet, but acknowledged that skirmishes between Turkish-backed forces and the Kurdish fighters may have occurred.

That front line in northern Syria was further complicated by a concurrent announcement by the Syrian Kurdish side on Thursday that they had agreed with Russia to withdraw from some of the territory between al-Bab and Manbij, to make room for a buffer.

The Manbij Military Council, part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said that under the deal, they will withdraw from a front line with rival Turkish-backed forces near the Euphrates River. This will allow Syrian government forces to create a buffer between them.

However, Cavusoglu denied any such agreement was reached.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. The Turkish and Syrian authorities have long regarded each other with thinly-veiled hostility. </s> Syrian troops backed by Russian jets completed the recapture of the historic city of Palmyra from the Islamic State group Thursday, the Kremlin and the army said, in another blow to the jihadists.

Bolstered by air strikes and ground troops from their ally Moscow, Syrian forces battled through the desert for weeks to reach Palmyra.

The oasis city has traded hands several times during Syria's six-year civil war and become a symbol of IS's wanton destruction of priceless cultural heritage in areas under its control.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said the jihadists had totally withdrawn from the desert city but not before mining several areas.

"The Syrian army is still clearing neighbourhoods of mines and has not spread out into the whole city yet," said its director, Rami Abdel Rahman.

An army statement carried on state news agency SANA said its forces had "regained control over Palmyra and surrounding territory after a series of successful military operations".

IS has suffered a string of setbacks since taking over swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014, and its two main strongholds of Mosul and Raqa both face assaults by forces backed by a US-led coalition.

The jihadists first seized Palmyra in May 2015 and began to systematically destroy and loot the UNESCO world heritage site's monuments and temples.

They were driven out in March 2016 but recaptured the city in December when the government was focused on seizing rebel-held east Aleppo.

Before IS first entered the city, Palmyra boasted temples, colonnaded alleys and elaborately decorated tombs that were among the best preserved classical monuments in the Middle East.

But many of the structures have been destroyed and much of the heritage looted for sale on the black market.

Moscow's support has been key in the Syrian army's Palmyra push, and its warplanes continued to bombard IS positions inside and near the city on Thursday, the Observatory reported.

A decades-old ally of Damascus, Moscow launched an air campaign in September 2015 in support of President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

After losing ground in the early years of the war, Assad's regime has regained significant territory -- including by pushing rebel forces out of second city Aleppo last year -- thanks in large part to Russian support.

On another battle front against IS, fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced they would cede several villages to the government as part of a deal brokered by Russia to avoid conflict with Turkey.

Turkey launched a cross-border operation in late August that it said aimed to counter both IS and the SDF, which is dominated by Kurdish fighters that Ankara sees as "terrorists".

The surprise announcement by the SDF marks the first time that US-supported fighters has offered to cede territory to Assad's forces.

It said the territory to be handed over lay between the towns of Manbij and Al-Bab, which Turkish-backed fighters captured last week from IS, to create a buffer zone between them.

Ankara meanwhile renewed its threat to bomb Kurdish fighters unless they withdrew from Manbij, a former bastion of IS that is now under SDF control.

The Turkey-backed rebels launched their advance on Manbij on Wednesday, initially seizing two villages but losing them to the SDF by Thursday.

The Observatory said clashes were ongoing southwest of Manbij late Thursday.

The profusion of forces operating in Syria has muddled the battlefield and on Wednesday a US general said Russian warplanes had bombed SDF fighters mistakenly believing they were IS.

The Russian defence ministry denied carrying out the air strikes.

Russia on Thursday accused Syria's main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), of "sabotaging" sputtering UN-led Syrian peace talks in Geneva and questioned their ability to reach a deal.

"The results of the first days of the intra-Syrian dialogues, as before, raise questions over the ability of the Syrian opposition representatives to reach a deal," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Moscow had earlier called for "terrorism" to be added to the agenda of the talks, which have so far focused on three topics: governance, the constitution, and elections.

But the HNC late Wednesday refused, having previously accused Assad's regime of wanting to turn the focus to terrorism as a distraction from political questions.

"Progress in the Geneva round must not be held hostage by the Riyadh platform," lead Syrian negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari told reporters, referring to the Saudi-backed HNC.

The Geneva talks, the fourth round of UN-sponsored negotiations in the war, are expected to end by the weekend, though no formal timeframe has been set. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s military announced on Thursday it has fully recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group as the militants’ defenses crumbled and IS fighters fled in the face of artillery fire and intense Russia-backed airstrikes.

The development marks the third time that the town — famed for its priceless Roman ruins and archaeological treasures IS had sought to destroy — has changed hands in one year.

It was also the second blow for the Islamic State group in Syria in a week, after Turkish backed opposition fighters seized the Syrian town of al-Bab from the militants on Feb. 23, following a grueling three month battle. In neighboring Iraq, the Sunni extremist group is fighting for survival in its last urban bastion in the western part of the city of Mosul.

For the Syrian government, the news was a welcome development against the backdrop of peace talks underway with the opposition in Switzerland.

“You are all invited to visit the historic city of Palmyra and witness its beauty, now that it has been liberated,” the Damascus envoy to the U.N.-mediated talks, Bashar al-Ja’afari, told reporters in Geneva.

“Of course, counterterrorism operations will continue until the last inch of our territory is liberated from the hands of these foreign terrorist organizations, which are wreaking havoc in our country,” he added.

The Damascus military statement said troops gained full control of the desert town in central Syria following a series of military operations carried out with the help of Russian air cover and in cooperation with “allied and friendly troops” — government shorthand for members of Lebanese militant Hezbollah group who are fighting along Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

IS defenses around Palmyra had begun to erode on Sunday, with government troops reaching the town’s outskirts on Tuesday. The state SANA news agency reported earlier that government troops had entered the town’s archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around mid-day, then the town itself, as IS militants fled the area.

This is the Syrian government’s second campaign to retake Palmyra. It seized the town from Islamic State militants last March only to lose it again 10 months later.

Before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011, Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed by his defense minister that Syrian troops had gained control of Palmyra, with support from Russian warplanes.

The Syrian government’s push has relied on ground support from Hezbollah and Russian air cover, according to Hezbollah’s media outlets.

Archeologists have decried what they say is extensive damage to its ruins.

Drone footage released by Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier this month showed new damage to the facade of Palmyra’s Roman-era theater and the adjoining Tetrapylon — a set of four monuments with four columns each at the center of the colonnaded road leading to the theater.

A 2014 report by a U.N. research agency disclosed satellite evidence of looting while the ruins were under Syrian military control. Opposition factions have also admitted to looting the antiquities for funds.

IS militants have twice used the town’s Roman theater as a stage for mass killings, most recently in January, when they shot and beheaded a number of captives they said had tried to escape their December advance. Other IS killings were said to have taken place in the courtyard of the Palmyra museum and in a former Russian base in the town.

The developments in Palmyra came against the backdrop of the talks in Geneva, which have been without any tangible breakthroughs so far. Diplomats and negotiators have set their sights on modest achievements in the latest round, after a week of discussions centering on setting an agenda for future talks.

On Thursday, U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura held another round of meetings with both the government delegation and opposition groups.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters Wednesday that “the parties have agreed to … discuss all issues in a parallel way, on several tracks.”

After a Damascus request, the issue of terrorism is also on the table, he had said. Russia is a key sponsor of Assad’s government.

A top Syrian opposition negotiator, Nasr al-Hariri, said the talks would likely culminate in a closing ceremony on Friday and the parties may be back in Geneva for further discussions in a few weeks.

Setting the agenda and strategy to guide discussions has proven difficult as the main conflicting parties dig in their heels over form and semantics.

In Turkey, the country’s foreign minister said that with the completion of an operation to retake the IS-held town of al-Bab in northern Syria, Turkish troops will head to the Syrian town of Manbij next, to oust U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara views as terrorists and a threat to Turkey.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Turkey would not shy away from attacking the Kurdish group that dominates the Syria Democratic Forces, which captured Manbij last year after weeks of deadly fighting with IS.

He renewed calls for the new U.S. administration not to support the Kurdish forces. Cavusoglu stressed that an operation to take Manbij had not started yet, but acknowledged that skirmishes between Turkish-backed forces and the Kurdish fighters may have occurred.

That front line in northern Syria was further complicated by a concurrent announcement by the Syrian Kurdish side on Thursday that they had agreed with Russia to withdraw from some of the territory between al-Bab and Manbij, to make room for a buffer.

The Manbij Military Council, part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said that under the deal, they will withdraw from a front line with rival Turkish-backed forces near the Euphrates River. This will allow Syrian government forces to create a buffer between them.

However, Cavusoglu denied any such agreement was reached.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. The Turkish and Syrian authorities have long regarded each other with thinly-veiled hostility.
ISIL recaptures the Syrian city of Palmyra despite heavy Russian airstrikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Palmyra Coordination Committee (PCC).