'A black nightmare': Palmyra attacked by Isil militants

Fears are growing over the fate of the ancient Roman city of Palmyra, following its recapture by Isil forces. On 10 December Isil militants launched an attack on Palmyra and the adjacent modern town of Tadmur, taking advantage of the fact that some Syrian government troops had been dispatched from there to fight at Aleppo, 200 kilometres to the north.President Bashar Assads government troops, with Russian military support, had seized the desert oasis of Palmyra in April, after an earlier ten-mo