Aleppo // ISIL fighters on Saturday re-entered Palmyra, Syria’s famed ancient desert city from which they were driven out eight months ago.
The extremists seized the Unesco’s world heritage site in May last year and caused extensive damage to many of its ancient sites, before they were ousted from the city in March by Syrian regime forces backed by Russia.
ISIL began an offensive in recent days near the town and “now occupies its north-west,” said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “There is also fighting with the army in the city centre,” he said.
The ISIL offensive came as air strikes pummelled the shrinking rebel territory in Aleppo and as US secretary of state John Kerry said the Syrian regime’s “indiscriminate bombing” amounted to crimes against humanity.
Western powers meeting in Paris called for the resumption of peace talks and for civilians to be allowed to leave Aleppo, where tens of thousands have already fled a fierce regime offensive.
The diplomatic flurry came as a US-backed alliance announced it would launch the second phase of its battle for ISIL’s de facto Syrian capital Raqqa further east.
The three-week-old assault by Syria’s Russian-backed regime aimed at retaking all of Aleppo has triggered mounting international outrage.
“The indiscriminate bombing by the regime violates rules of law, or in many cases, crimes against humanity, and war crimes,” Mr Kerry said after the talks in Paris, urging Russia to do its “utmost to bring it to a close”.
US and Russian officials meanwhile were due to gather in Geneva for what Mr Kerry described as a bid to stop the city from “being absolutely, completely, destroyed”.
Aleppo has witnessed some of the most brutal violence of the country’s nearly six-year war.
In less than a month, forces loyal to Bashar Al Assad have overrun around 85 per cent of eastern Aleppo, a rebel stronghold since 2012.
The UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said the world is watching “the last steps” in the Aleppo battle and evacuating civilians must be a priority.
Air strikes and regime rocket fire battered the last remaining rebel districts on Saturday, the Observatory said.
In west Aleppo, the hum of aeroplanes circling above could be heard, coupled with bombardment and machine-gun fire on the city’s east.
The strikes were so intense that windows in the west rattled and plumes of smoke could be seen rising from several points across the city’s skyline.
“The bombing is unreal,” said Ibrahim Abu Al Leith, spokesman for the White Helmets rescue force inside Aleppo. “The streets are full of people under the rubble. They are dying because we can’t get them out.”
According to the Observatory, nine civilians were killed on Saturday in a barrage of rebel rocket fire on government-controlled neighbourhoods.
The fresh attacks brought to 129 people, including 39 children, the number of people killed by rebel fire on regime-held western Aleppo since November 15.
Another 413 civilians, among them 45 children, have been killed in eastern Aleppo in the same period.
With the fighting intensifying after a brief respite, the UN General Assembly demanded an immediate ceasefire and urgent aid deliveries, in a resolution adopted by a strong majority.
But both Moscow and Damascus have rejected talk of a ceasefire without a rebel withdrawal from the city — a demand that opposition groups have refused.
After meeting with opposition representatives on Saturday, French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the opposition was willing to resume peace talks “without pre-conditions”.
Retired American general David Petraeus, a possible contender to replace Mr Kerry when Donald Trump becomes US president next month, expressed doubt about prospects for a political solution in Syria.
“It is not clear that Humpty Dumpty can be put back together again,” he said at a security forum in Bahrain. “I don’t think it’s too late for that but I do think that it is very late in the day indeed.”
The Observatory said another 2,000 civilians poured out of Aleppo’s remaining rebel-held districts on Saturday.
State news agency Sana also reported the displacement, but gave a number of 3,000 people and said they had been taken to the temporary shelter in Jibrin, about 10 kilometres east of Aleppo.
The UN said on Friday it had received reports of rebels blocking some from leaving and of reprisals against residents who asked armed groups to leave.
It has also expressed concern about reports that hundreds of men had gone missing after fleeing to government-held territory.
The fall of eastern Aleppo would be the biggest blow for the rebels since the war began in 2011.
*Agence France-Presse
