The historic city of Palmyra has fallen almost entirely under the control of Islamic State, after forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad collapsed under a seven-day siege that has left the magnificent ruins there exposed to near-certain destruction by the terror group.
Activists from the city and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said most of Palmyra fell on Wednesday shortly after the Assad regime evacuated most of its civilians and began withdrawing towards regime strongholds in the west.