Terreurorganisatie Islamitische Staat (IS) heeft na hevige gevechten met de Syrische regeringstroepen een van de belangrijkste gasvelden in het land veroverd, ten noordwesten van de historische stad Palmyra.

Dat melden het in Groot-Brittannië gevestigde Syrische Observatorium voor de Mensenrechten en bronnen bij het leger. Ook het IS-agentschap Amak berichtte over de triomf van de militie.

Historische overblijfselen

Islamitische Staat had twee dagen geleden een offensief gestart in de omgeving rond Palmyra. Intussen zijn de extremisten tot op acht kilometer van de stad opgerukt. Palmyra was in maart bevrijd door Syrische regeringstroepen. Onder het heerschappij van IS zijn talrijke unieke historische overblijfselen uit de eerste eeuw na Christus vernield.</s>Islamic State militants entered Palmyra in central Syria Saturday, nine months after being pushed out of the city by Syrian government troops backed by the Russian military.

The Associated Press, quoting reports by a Palmyra activist group, said IS had seized a military warehouse as well as the city's northern and western neighborhoods.

The militants are also pushing toward a nearby Syrian military airbase that the Russian military has been using to support Syrian forces, Reuters reported.

The intensification of fighting came after IS fighters captured at least a dozen government-held positions in eastern Homs, including strategic areas around Palmyra.



"IS took complete control of al-Mohur [oil] field in northwest of Palmyra," the pro-rebel Palmyra Coordination Committee said in a tweet on Friday.



IS has reportedly seized a significant amount of weapons and ammunition from retreating Syrian soldiers in the area, local reports said. Syrian warplane on Friday bombarded the area in an attempt to push IS fighters back.



The IS-led offensive on eastern Homs was so swift it took pro-regime forces by surprise, activists said.



IS "was so quick in capturing all these areas," said Hussein al-Homsi, a pro-opposition media activist in Homs. "The [Syrian] regime forces had to retreat and perhaps regroup to fight back in some of the recently captured areas."



Syrian troops took heavy casualties since Thursday, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors Syria's civil war with activists on the ground.



"If the [IS] advancement continues this way, it could take control of Palmyra at any moment," said Rami Abdulrahman, spokesman for the group.

It seems "IS has planned for this assault for a long time," he added.

FILE - Syrian army soldiers stands on the ruins of FILE - Syrian army soldiers stands on the ruins of the Temple of Bel in the historic city of Palmyra, in Homs Governorate, Syria, April 1, 2016. FILE - Syrian army soldiers stands on the ruins of the Temple of Bel in the historic city of Palmyra, in Homs Governorate, Syria, April 1, 2016.





Syrian government forces recaptured Palmyra in March after IS controlled and destroyed key parts of the city's UNESCO World Heritage ruins.



IS "is interested in Palmyra for its international importance" and it is a way for them to distract the world's attention from what is going on in Mosul and Raqqa," Abdulrahman told VOA.



Analysts say with its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul coming under siege from Iraq-led forces and Raqqa, its de facto capital in Syria, being targeted by a Kurdish-led offensive, IS is likely setting its sights to create a new stronghold.



IS is using the Syrian desert as a route to resupply and reinforce its fighters in Homs. The sprawling desert connects Homs to its strongholds of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria.



The Pentagon said on Friday a U.S. airstrike destroyed 168 oil tanker trucks near Palmyra used by IS.



The central province of Homs is largely controlled by Syrian government troops. Some pockets in the north are under the control of rebels battling the regime while other areas in the east are under IS control.



IS wants to move toward the central city of Homs where pro-Assad troops have been in charge since pushing out the last remaining groups of rebels in 2015.



"Homs is a natural area of operations for [IS]," said Nicholas A. Heras, a Middle East researcher at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. "[IS] already has a long-established military presence in the contested areas [of Homs]."</s>BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State seized more territory from Syrian government forces near the ancient city of Palmyra on Friday in fierce clashes that raged for a second day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

The jihadists launched an attack late on Thursday in which they captured grain silos northeast of Palmyra and have since taken at least partial control of oil and gas fields to its northwest.

Dozens of Syrian troops have been killed in the fighting, the British-based Observatory, which tracks the war using sources on the ground, said.

Syrian warplanes were carrying out air raids in the area in an effort to take back positions lost.

The fighting was some of the fiercest in the area since the Syrian army recaptured Palmyra after nearly two years in March, driving out the ultra-hardline militants who had destroyed large parts of the city's UNESCO World Heritage ruins.

Islamic State has been on the back foot in both Syria and Iraq since late last year, losing much of its territory in both countries as well as some of its most senior figures, killed in air strikes.

The group took advantage of chaos during Syria's civil war to seize territory there and in Iraq in the summer of 2014.

Syria's civil war pits President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Iran, Russia and Shi'ite militias against mostly Sunni rebels.
The SOHR and Amaq announce that ISIL has captured an oil field north-west of Palmyra.