All but a few dozen residents have fled the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra following a barrage of Syrian government air strikes on the city, an activist in the area has told Al Jazeera.
The air strikes since Friday have killed more than 100 people, including an estimated 33 civilians and 70 fighters believed to belong to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday. Raids by warplanes and helicopters using barrel bombs and missiles left at least 12 civilians and 20 fighters dead on Tuesday alone.
ISIL took over Palmyra in May, making it the target of regular goverment attacks in recent months. “We’re going into the third day of indiscriminate air strikes, missiles and barrel bombs,” Khaled al-Homsi, a member of the Palmyra Coordination activist group, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday night.
Most civilians have fled the city to neighbouring towns located on its eastern outskirts, according to Homsi. “There are only a few dozen civilians still in the main part of the city,” he said, adding that some people have taken refuge in improvised bomb shelters.
