SYRIAN troops were poised to liberate Palmyra from Islamic State (Isis) yesterday after seizing high ground around the ancient city.

The army and allied militias captured the key Palmyra Triangle area and all heights overlooking the Roman ruins and nearby Tadmur from the west and south-west.

Syrian warplanes also blitzed Isis convoys on the road to As-Suknah to the west, destroying dozens of vehicles.

Up to 6,000 extra troops have reportedly been sent to the front for the final assault.

“God willing, in few hours we will enter and secure the town,” one officer told Syrian TV.

Isis terrorists have destroyed priceless antiquities and murdered scholars working to preserve them since capturing the site last year.

Meanwhile, at the Geneva peace talks, Syrian government delegation leader Bashar al-Jaafari said his team had received a document from United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura.

He said the paper’s contents would be studied after the delegation returns to Damascus from the current round of negotiations with the Saudi-convened High Negotiations Committee of Islamist groups.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier agreed on the need to preserve “a united secular state in Syria,” according to the German minister.