Russian airstrikes target IS positions in Syria's Palmyra

Warplanes, believed to be Russians, carried out tens of airstrikes on areas in the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria on Sunday, killing one person and wounding others, a monitor group reported.

The airstrikes targeted areas in the ancient oasis city of Palmyra, which was overran by the Islamic State (IS) militant group last May, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group that relies on a network of activists on ground.

The Russian air force has been engaged in striking the IS positions across Syria since late September.

The Syrian government officials hailed the strikes as efficient, while the opposition rebels accused Moscow of attempting to support the administration of President Bashar al-Assad only.

The Russians, however, said their aim is to support a political solution to Syria.

On Oct. 6, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said all Russian actions in Syria aim for a political settlement of the Syrian conflicts.

The IS terror group seized full control of Palmyra, otherwise known as Tadmur, on May 20 this year.

Since capturing it, the terror-labeled group destroyed the city's notorious military prison and several Islamic tombs.

The IS also committed public executions of government soldiers and people accused of working for the government.

Their latest execution was against a Khaled Asaad, a prominent Syrian archaeologist, who had lived in Palmyra for most of his life and dedicated his carrier to study the archaeological sites of Palmyra.

Government officials said the IS militants were trying to extract information of Asaad about the "hidden gold" of Palmyra, which, they said, don't even exist.

Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world.

Syria has many prehistoric, Greek, Byzantine and Islamic heritages. Before the crisis, Syria had attracted many multinational archaeological missions coming for searching new clues of historical facts on the development of civilizations.