BEIRUT — Syrian government forces battling the Islamic State group re-entered Palmyra on Thursday in their quest to again take the historic town they had lost to the militants in December, state media reported.

The Kremlin’s spokesman said President Vladimir Putin was informed by his defense minister that Syrian troops had gained control of Palmyra, with support from Russian warplanes. However, there was no immediate confirmation of Palmyra’s seizure from the Syrian military and the Russian reports did not provide more details.

The 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 defenses crumbled and militants fled the area.

It said army units were engaged in “precise tactical operations” and chasing remnants of IS fighters holed up inside the ancient town.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition monitoring group, said IS militants pulled out completely from Palmyra, adding that troops were conducting mopping-up operations.

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.

IS defenses of the town had begun to erode on Sunday, with the government troops reaching Palmyra’s outskirts on Tuesday.

Activist-run Palmyra News Network said the advancing forces pounded the desert town — famed for its ancient Roman monuments and grand stone theater — with artillery and airstrikes during the day.

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 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 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.

In other developments, German authorities arrested a Syrian national on suspicion of murdering dozens of civil servants in Syria in 2013. They said the suspect could stand trial for war crimes. An associate of the man was also arrested. The two men reportedly belonged to an al-Qaida-linked faction fighting the Syrian government.</s>Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad walk atop of a hill on the edge of Palmyra, March 2, 2017. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition declined to congratulate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on retaking historic Palmyra from Islamic State militants on Thursday and suggested the sight of the city changing hands again was risible.

“It is the second time that we see this handover and this is obviously being used for political reasons,” chief opposition negotiator Nasr al-Hariri told reporters in Geneva, adding that he considered both sides to be terrorists.

“If we want to follow the game of Assad and Palmyra, it will be like watching Tom and Jerry.”

Earlier, the Syrian government’s chief negotiator Bashar al-Ja’afari had hailed Assad for keeping his promise to retake the ancient city of Palmyra, and vowed that every last inch of Syria would be retaken from foreign terrorists.

Related Coverage Russia says its military advisers, special forces behind Palmyra recapture</s>BEIRUT — Syria’s military has announced that it has fully recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremist group for the second time in a year.

The army statement released on Thursday says that government forces are now in control of the town, following a series of military operations. 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 Kremlin’s spokesman said Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed by his defense minister that Syrian troops had gained control of Palmyra, with support from Russian warplanes.

Activist-run Palmyra News Network (PNN) said the advancing forces pounded the desert town – a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its ancient Roman monuments and grand stone theater – with artillery and airstrikes during the day.

This is the second time the government has retaken the desert town. It seized Palmyra from ISIS militants last March only to lose it again in December. Before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011, Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

ISIS defenses of the town had begun to erode on Sunday, with the government troops reaching Palmyra’s outskirts on Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition monitoring group, said ISIS militants pulled out completely from Palmyra, adding that troops were conducting mopping-up operations.

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.

The ISIS 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 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 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>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>Syrian government forces battling the militant Islamic State (ISIS) group re-entered Palmyra on Thursday in their quest to again take the historic town they had lost to the militants in December, state media reported.

The SANA news agency reported that government troops entered the town's archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around mid-day, then the town itself, as ISIS militants fled the area.

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

ISIS defenses had begun to crumble on Sunday, with the government troops reaching the town's outskirts on Tuesday.

Activist-run Palmyra News Network said the advancing forces pounded the desert town famed for its ancient Roman monuments and grand stone theater with artillery and airstrikes during the day.

This is the government's second campaign to retake the desert town. It seized Palmyra from ISIS 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 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 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 UN 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 ISIS 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 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 Syrian peace talks which are underway in Geneva but without any tangible breakthroughs so far.

Diplomats and negotiators have set their sights on modest achievements in the latest round of negotiations, after a week of discussions centering on setting an agenda for future talks.

On Thursday, UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura is 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 ISIS-held town of al-Bab in northern Syria, Turkish troops will head to the Syrian town of Manbij next, to oust US-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 US 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, and the Turkish and Syrian authorities have long regarded each other with thinly-veiled hostility.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government.</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 said, in another blow to the militants.

Bolstered by air strikes and ground troops from their ally Moscow, Syrian government 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 that the militants 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.

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 militants 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 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.

"We will strike the YPG if they do not retreat," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told journalists, referring to the Kurdish People's Protection Units. "We do not want our ally the United States to continue cooperating with terror organisations that target us," he added.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda has confirmed that top leader Abu Khayr al-Masri, believed to be the organisation’s number two, was killed in a drone strike by the US-led coalition in Syria.

The killing of Masri, described by analysts as “jihadi royalty,” could serve as a major security coup for US President Donald Trump early in his presidency.

Two branches of the global militant group, including the powerful Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), announced Masri’s death in a statement dated Wednesday. Calling him a “hero,” the statement said Masri “was killed during a Crusader drone strike” in Syria.

Six rebels and one SDF fighter were killed, the Observatory said. 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.

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.</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 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.

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.

Soguel reported from Geneva. Associated Press writers Philip Issa in Beirut, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.</s>In this Wednesday, March 1, 2017 frame grab from video provided by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, Syrian forces take up positions during fighting between Government forces and Islamic State group militants in the ancient city of Palmyra, near Homs, Syria.

BEIRUT — Syrian government forces battling the Islamic State group re-entered Palmyra on Thursday in their quest to again take the historic town they had lost to the militants in December, state media reported.

The SANA news agency reported that government troops entered the town's archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around mid-day, then the town itself, as IS militants fled the area.

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

IS defenses had begun to crumble on Sunday, with the government troops reaching the town's outskirts on Tuesday.

Activist-run Palmyra News Network said the advancing forces pounded the desert town — famed for its ancient Roman monuments and grand stone theater — with artillery and airstrikes during the day.

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 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 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 which are underway in Geneva but without any tangible breakthroughs so far. Diplomats and negotiators have set their sights on modest achievements in the latest round of negotiations, after a week of discussions centering on setting an agenda for future talks.

On Thursday, U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura is 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, and the Turkish and Syrian authorities have long regarded each other with thinly-veiled hostility.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government.

In other developments, German authorities arrested a Syrian national on suspicion of murdering dozens of civil servants in Syria in 2013. They said the suspect could stand trial for war crimes. An associate of the man was also arrested. The two men reportedly belonged to an al-Qaida-linked faction fighting the Syrian government.

Associated Press writers Dominique Soguel in Geneva, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
The Syrian Army and its allies recapture the ancient city of Palmyra from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.