IS cuts regime supply route to Palmyra

Syrian regime forces yesterday battled jihadists who cut a key supply route west of ancient Palmyra, after new bombardments hit Aleppo city where a ceasefire is due to expire at midnight.

The latest fighting comes as world powers prepare to meet in Vienna next week to try to revive peace talks aimed at ending a five-year conflict that has killed more than 270,000.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the Islamic State (IS) group yesterday cut the main road from Homs city to Palmyra just weeks after the army recaptured the city, a UNESCO world heritage site.

A military source told the SANA official news agency that the Syrian air force had carried out strikes against IS around the main facility in the Shaer gas field northwest of Palmyra. The jihadist group last week seized the Shaer gas field from the regime.

President Bashar al-Assad's troops retook Palmyra with support from Russian air strikes on March 27 -- an achievement his regime celebrated with concerts in its ancient amphitheatre last week.

But today IS surrounds Palmyra from all directions except the southwest, the head of the Observatory said, adding that IS was within 10 kilometres of the city.

In the northern battleground city of Aleppo, an AFP correspondent said the city's rebel-held east was calm yesterday after fighting overnight.

A local truce -- brokered by Russia and the United States after a spike in violence in the city last month -- is set to expire at midnight. A local truce took effect in Aleppo last Thursday after a surge in fighting killed more than 300 people in the city .

Meanwhile, The US-led coalition on Tuesday said it has staged 14 strikes against Islamic State in its latest round of daily strikes on the militant group in Iraq and Syria, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement.