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.
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.
