Islamic State, squeezed on 2 sides, loses Syrian city and Iraqi border crossing

BEIRUT — Islamic State militants lost their last foothold in a major city and a strategic border crossing Friday, as the Syrian and Iraqi militaries made significant advances, squeezing the militant group into a shrinking patch of territory near the border.

Government forces, supported by intense Russian airstrikes and Iranian-backed militias on the ground, drove the militants from the last few neighborhoods they controlled in the eastern provincial capital of Deir elZour, the Syrian army said.

Across the border, the Iraqi army and allied Iranian-backed militias seized control of a crucial border crossing after taking most of the town of al-Qaim, Iraq, from the Islamic State, according to the Iraqi military chief of staff.

The military advances dealt a severe blow to the militant group, leaving it with fragments of its selfdeclared caliphate that once stretched from the center of Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad. They provide yet another indication that President Bashar Assad’s fortunes have rebounded and that, with help from Russian and Iranian allies, the Syrian army can take back territory.

ISIS now maintains just a few pockets of western Anbar province in Iraq and somewhat larger patches in Syria, where it controls about a third of the desert province of Deir el-Zour and an oil field.

The developments also set the stage for a battle for the Syrian border town of Bukamal, on the strategic highway from Baghdad to Damascus, and what appears to be the end game for the remaining Islamic State territory in Iraq and Syria.

The seizing of Deir elZour punctuates the turnaround Assad has managed in more than six years of war. Just two years ago, the idea that the government would manage to take back the city seemed remote.

The battle on the Iraqi side of the Iraqi-Syrian border Friday involved Iraq’s elite counterterrorism units, the Iraqi army, the federal police and Iraqi paramilitaries supported by Iran. U.S. military advisers have been working with the Iraqi army and special forces, and the United States provided air support to the Iraqi ground forces Friday.

The advance gave the Iraqis and their U.S.-led coalition allies a forward operating position to monitor any remaining Islamic State fighters fleeing the converging armies.