The Syrian army is trying to retake Palmyra, which the ultra-hardline Islamist militants seized in May, to open a road to the mostly IS-held eastern province of Deir al-Zor.
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Palmyra’s recapture would be a strategic as well as symbolic victory for President Bashar al-Assad, given whoever controls it also controls the vast desert extending from central Syria to the Iraqi border, experts say.
“Fighting continues. However, we can say that the Syrian army has already established fire control over Palmyra”, the source went on to say.
The ceasefire does not include areas held by IS and Al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front, allowing the regime to launch an offensive to retake Palmyra at the start of the month backed by heavy Russian air strikes. “In a few hours (government) forces will declare the city of Palmyra completely secure, God willing”, the soldier said.
It was not clear if this meant government negotiators were pulling out of the talks before they are officially to adjourn on Thursday.
There is some hope that high-level US-Russian meetings in Moscow this week could deliver the momentum needed to move on to a new round.
Last week, the Russian military said its aircraft were flying up to 25 sorties a day over Palmyra to help liberate what President Vladimir Putin has described as a “pearl of world civilisation”.
IS also demolished Palmyra’s infamous Tadmur prison, where thousands of Syrian government opponents had been imprisoned and tortured over the years.
“The diplomatic process in Geneva is interconnected with what is taking place in Moscow”, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said on Wednesday.
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UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria Staffan de Mistura, arrives to take part in a round of negotiations between the Syrian government and U.N., at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, March 23, 2016. The opposition has said Assad must step down as a precondition to any transition, while the government has refused to discuss Assad’s departure. “It is not ready yet but we think it is in the right direction, it covers many points important to the Riyadh platform, the Cairo platform, and the Moscow platforms”, Syrian activist Jihad Makdissi told reporters after meeting the envoy in Geneva.
