The Syrian army and its allies have entered Palmyra as part of an operation to oust Islamic State militants from the ancient city, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.
"The Syrian troops accompanied by their allies backed by Russians planes have entered the first neighborhood of al Mutakadeen which is located in the western sector of city," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Obsevratory for Human Rights, told dpa.
Abdel Rahman said heavy clashes are still ongoing across city and that the regime is now fully controlling the western and north-western sectors of the outskirts of the city of Palmyra.
He added that reports are saying that Daesh militants have withdrawn from inside the city of Palmyra.
Daesh has put up a strong fight, managing to foil various attacks by the Syrian army in recent days.
Palmyra, which is a UNESCO world heritage site, was recaptured by Daesh late last year while the Syrian army focused on gaining full control of the strategic northern city of Aleppo.
Sources closes to the Syrian regime told dpa that the Syrian army, aided by Russian troops, also managed to take control of Palmyra Airport, located in the eastern sector of the city.
Abdel Rahman said earlier that the Syrian troops have taken control of key hilltops overlooking the city, thus bringing it under the army's firing range.
A Syrian military official said that recapturing Palmyra "is a matter of time."
"There is a big collapse in the ranks of Daesh fighters," the official told dpa. "They have abandoned most of their positions around the city," the official added on condition of anonymity.
The same source said that military engineers in the Syrian army are getting ready to start dismantling the mines and explosives that were left behind by the extremist militia.
Last December, Daesh fighters seized the historic city, its airport and a castle located outside Palmyra despite intense airstrikes by regime jets and those of its ally, Russia.
In late March 2016, government forces recaptured Palmyra, which Daesh had seized in May 2015, wreaking havoc on the city's famed monuments.
Palmyra is a spectacular classical city nestled on the edge of date-palm groves in an oasis of the central Syrian desert.
The triumphal arch, the temple of Bel and most of the tower tombs are gone now. After Islamic State extremists captured the city in May 2015, they packed them with explosives and reduced them to piles of rubble. The group also destroyed Palmyra's tetrapylon monument.
UN cultural agency UNESCO described the destruction of the temple of Bel at the time as "an intolerable crime against civilization."
The hardline Islamist militants also used the ancient city's Roman-era theatre for the mass execution of captured Syrian government troops.
By Weedah Hamzah and Khalil Hamlo
