IS under pressure as troops advance on Palmyra, Mosul

Damascus : Syrian troops on Thursday entered the ancient city of Palmyra and Iraqi forces launched an offensive against Mosul as pressure mounted on key strongholds of the Islamic State jihadist group.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was meanwhile holding talks in Moscow to push for peace efforts in Syria, from where IS has claimed attacks on the West including this week's bombings in Brussels.

In Geneva, the United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he was aiming to restart peace talks on April 9.

Backed by Russian warplanes and allied militia on the ground, the Syrian army advanced intoPalmyra after launching a desert offensive early this month, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The defence ministry in Moscow said Russian aircraft carried out 146 strikes on "terrorist targets" in the Palmyra area between Wednesday and last Sunday.

A total of 320 "terrorists" were killed, it said, adding that six command posts, five tanks, two ammunition dumps and 15 vehicles were among the targets "eliminated".

IS overran Palmyra known as the "Pearl of the Desert" last May and it has since blown up UNESCO-listed temples and looted relics that dated back thousands of years.

"Regime forces have entered the Hayy al-Gharf neighbourhood in the southwest of Palmyra. They are advancing very slowly because of mines planted by IS," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding troops were also advancing from the north.

A Syrian military source said the army had entered Palmyra from the northwest after seizing control of part of the historic Valley of the Tombs.

"The clashes, which are ongoing, are fierce," he told AFP.