Syrian army battles Islamic State near Palmyra

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian regime forces Wednesday, May 11 battled jihadists who cut a key supply route west of ancient Palmyra, after new bombardments hit Aleppo city where a ceasefire was due to expire at midnight, AFP reports.

The latest fighting comes as world powers prepare to meet in Vienna next week to try to revive peace talks aimed at ending a five-year conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the Islamic State (IS) group on Tuesday cut the main road from Homs city to Palmyra just weeks after the army recaptured the city, a UNESCO world heritage site.

A military source told the SANA official news agency that the Syrian air force had carried out strikes against IS around the main facility in the Shaer gas field, northwest of Palmyra.

A security source told AFP: "Military operations are ongoing in the Shaer gas field."

IS last week seized the Shaer gas field -- one of the biggest in the central province of Homs -- from the regime, AFP says. Both sides have been battling each other in the desert around Palmyra since the jihadist group was ousted from the city in late March.

President Bashar al-Assad's troops retook Palmyra with support from Russian air strikes on March 27 -- an achievement his regime celebrated with concerts in its ancient amphitheatre last week.

But IS now surrounds Palmyra from all directions except the southwest, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that IS was within 10 kilometres (around six miles) of the city.