The Islamic State of the Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group has seized control over large parts of the Yarmouk district in southern Damascus, inhabited mainly by Palestinian refugees, according to a senior Palestinian official, witnesses and an activist monitoring group.

Anwar Abdel Hadi, director of political affairs for the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Damascus, told the AFP news agency that “fighters from ISIL launched an assault this morning on Yarmuk and they took over the majority of the camp” on Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said ISIL was in control of a “large part” of the neighbourhood after fighting with Palestinian groups also opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Yarmuk was once a thriving area home to 160,000 Palestinian refugees and Syrians but has been caught up in the country’s fighting and besieged by regime forces for more than a year.

About 18,000 residents are estimated to remain in the camp after many fled the fighting. Al Jazeera