Syria in final push for Deir Ezzor
BEIRUT, Sept 11, (Agencies): Syrian army reinforcements arrived in Deir Ezzor Monday for a new push against the Islamic State group, as a second day of suspected Russian strikes killed 19 civilians in the area.
Deir Ezzor city is the capital of the oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor, regarded as a strategic prize by both Russianbacked Syrian troops and USbacked fighters.
Regime forces have scored major advances in recent days, breaking a pair of IS sieges on the city and capturing territory around it.
The advances have been accompanied by deadly air strikes, with a monitor saying 19 civilians were killed Monday in suspected Russian air raids northwest of the city.
The strikes come a day after the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian strikes killed 34 civilians southeast of the city, as they fled across the Euphrates River.
The latest air raids hit the ISheld village of Al-Khrayta, 14 kms (nine miles) outside Deir Ezzor city.
Two sets of strikes 30 minutes apart hit civilians sheltering in tents along the Euphrates and boats on the river, the monitor said.
They come as the Syrian army prepares to push into the eastern IS-held part of Deir Ezzor city, according to the Observatory.
“Huge military reinforcements, including equipment, vehicles and fighters have arrived in Deir Ezzor ahead of an attack to push DAESH from the city’s eastern neighbourhoods,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
“Russian and Syrian regime
warplanes are striking IS positions in the city and its outskirts,” he added.
Since 2014, IS has controlled most of Deir Ezzor city and the surrounding province, which borders territory the jihadists hold in Iraq.
The remaining 40 percent of the city still held by the government — and home to around 100,000 civilians — was under crippling IS siege.
Backed by Russian air power, government troops have breached IS’s sieges, captured the strategic Jabal Thardah region and expanded their control to half of Deir Ezzor city.
Moscow intervened in Syria in September 2015 in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad.
Fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Saturday announced a separate offensive to capture IS territory east of the Euphrates river, which slices diagonally across Deir Ezzor province.
By Monday, the SDF’s Deir Ezzor Military Council (DEMC) had seized much of the province’s northeast and were just a few kilometres (miles) away from the river.
Abdel Rahman said they had advanced to 6 kms (four miles) from its eastern banks, at a point across the river from Deir Ezzor city.
Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led coalition backing the SDF, said the militia had made “significant gains”, capturing around 250 square kms (96 square miles) since the operation began.