ISIS jihadis threaten Syria's ancient Palmyra
ISIS jihadis battled Syrian troops near ancient Palmyra Thursday, threatening the UNESCO world heritage site with destruction like that which it has already wreaked in Iraq, activists said, AFP reported.
After a lightning advance across the desert in which they overran government forces in ferocious fighting in which 110 combatants were killed, the jihadis were within two kilometers (a little more than a mile) of the ruins, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"Palmyra is under threat," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
"ISIS has taken all the army posts between Al-Sukhna and Palmyra" in its drive towards the oasis town from its stronghold in the Euphrates valley to the east, he added.