Syrian army relieves troops trapped in eastern city for three years by Isil fighters’ siege

THE Syrian army yesterday reached troops trapped for nearly three years by Isil fighters in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, breaking one of the longest sieges of the Syrian civil war.

Around 100,000 residents have been holding out in the Syrian-government held half of the city, which includes the airport and an army base, since Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) seized control of the area in 2014.

“The Syrian Arab Army has advanced on the Brigade 137 base front on the western side of Deir Ezzor city and broken the siege imposed by the Daesh organisation,” state news agency SANA said, using the Arabic name for Isil.

A local journalist told AFP that flags had been raised throughout the government-held area in anticipation of the arrival of the soldiers, and that jubilant residents were greeting one another with: “Good morning of victory”. Deir Ezzor, around 60 miles from the Iraqi border, was an early site of rebel groups rising up against Bashar alassad, Syria’s president. Isil overran rebel positions and circled the government enclave the following year.

Residents have faced shortages of food and medicine, alleviated by the World Food Programme making regular drops of food into the city, according to the NGO Siege Watch.

The breaking of the siege marks another important victory for Assad. Government forces and their allies had made rapid gains in the past few days with Russia supporting their advance with air strikes.

Russia’s defence ministry said that one of the country’s frigates in the Mediterranean had fired cruise missiles towards Isil targets near the city yesterday and that the missiles had struck a “fortified area” in the suburbs.