(CNN) Syrian government forces have recaptured the city of Palmyra and surrounding areas from ISIS, according to the country's general command, cited by state news agency SANA.
Army units "in cooperation with the allied and backing forces" inflicted heavy losses on ISIS forces in operations supported by Syrian and Russian air forces, the report said.
Palmyra was seized from regime forces by ISIS in December after hundreds of the jihadist group's militants launched a coordinated attack in and around the city.
Palmyra is seen as strategically important to both sides in Syria's more than five year civil war.
Located in Homs province, in central Syria, it is around 225 kilometers (140 miles) from Raqqa, considered ISIS' headquarters in Syria.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Syrian government forces completed their operation with the help of Russian airpower, reported Russia's state news agency TASS.
Control over the city has passed from the regime to ISIS and back again a number of times.
Syrian forces recaptured the city from ISIS last March, after it was seized the previous May, when ISIS started demolishing ancient ruins in the city.
Syrian rebel leaders gathered in Geneva for peace talks with the government refused to congratulate the regime. Nasser al-Hariri, a member of the Syrian Coalition, said the struggle for Palmyra was like watching a cartoon.
"This is the second time we've seen the handover [of Palmyra] and this is obviously being used for political reasons," said al-Hariri in a press statement Thursday. "if we want to follow the game of (Syrian President) Assad and Palmyra, it will be like watching Tom and Jerry."
How ISIS ravaged Palmyra's world treasures
Before: The ruins of the 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin are seen in Palmyra, Syria, in 2007. The ISIS militant group took over the ancient city last year and razed parts of its
World Heritage Site. Syrian government forces recaptured the ancient city from the terror group in March 2016. Click through to see the landmarks before and after ISIS' occupation.
After: A Syrian government soldier walks near what's left of the Temple of Baalshamin on Sunday, March 27. Syrian forces retook the city days before, but damage had already been done by ISIS. UNESCO says it plans to evaluate the extent of
Palmyra's damage soon. Many of the structures -- which date from the first and second centuries and marry Greco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences -- remain in place, bolstering hopes that ISIS didn't completely raze the world heritage site.
Before: The Arch of Triumph in 2006.
After: The Arch of Triumph on March 27.
Before: The Temple of Bel in 2008.
After: The Temple of Bel on March 27.
Destroyed statues are seen inside the damaged Palmyra Museum on March 27.
Many statues in the museum had their faces chipped off -- in keeping with strict Sharia interpretations of the depiction of human forms.
Before ISIS invaded, authorities took what they could from the museum. But larger items and those fixed to walls had to be left behind.
Destroyed statues inside the Palmyra Museum.
The Syrian directorate-general of antiquities and monuments was positive that the condition of artifacts meant that they could be restored and their "historic value" returned, according to a translation of an article on the
department's website.
ISIS took over Palmyra in May.
By June, ISIS began destroying historical sites.
Damage inside the Palmyra Museum.
Palmyra was a caravan oasis when Romans overtook it in the mid-first century. In the centuries that followed, the area "stood at the crossroads of several civilizations" with its art and architecture mixing Greek, Roman and Persian influences, according to UNESCO.
In the past, the Syrian army has boasted that the capture of Palmyra would be "a launchpad to expand military operations" into Raqqa and Deir Ezzor provinces.
Monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed Palmyra's recapture.
Rami Abdulrahman, the founder of SOHR, said the city had been taken after "heavy clashes between ISIS and the regime forces erupted on Wednesday."
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report