Damascus, March 2 (IANS): The Islamic State (IS) terror group again withdrew from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday in the wake of an army offensive, a war monitoring group reported.
In their retreat, the terrorists planted mines in various points of the city, whose ancient ruins are a Unesco World Heritage Site, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the UK-based SOHR, told Efe news that the Syrian forces had secured the city's western outskirts.
Russian aircraft are intensifying their bombing in areas still controlled by the IS radicals in Palmyra and in the rural areas around it, the SOHR said.
The Syrian army, along with pro-government militias, on Wednesday entered Palmyra, which has been under the control of the IS since December, when it retook control after being ousted in March 2016.