Daesh Militants Burn Gas Plant Near Syria's Palmyra - Military Source

As the Syrian army is conducting a massive offensive against Daesh militants entrenched in Palmyra, the militants rushed to burn down gas processing facilities at a plant located in the vicinity of the ancient city.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — Daesh militants have burned all gas processing facilities at a plant in the Hiyan oil field close to Syria's Palmyra, a Syrian military source told Sputnik on Thursday.

"IS [Daesh] militants have burned the remaining parts of the Hiyan plant in the eastern Homs province which they blew up a month ago," the source said.

The fire continues to rage in the southern part of the plant, the source added.

The Syrian army is currently advancing to retake the ancient city of Palmyra back from Daesh. Operations started to the east of the Tiyas T4 airbase, where Syrian forces retreated after being pushed out of Palmyra in December. Several locations have been retaken over recent days.

Daesh first seized the city in spring 2015 before being forced out by Syrian government troops with air support from Russian jets in March 2016. The militants later made multiple attempts to retake Palmyra culminating in a major assault in early December when Syrian forces retreated to Tiyas. Daesh then captured a number of villages to the southwest of Palmyra alongside the Hiyan oil field.