Syria troops in near-full siege of IS in key city
Russian-backed Syrian government forces have all but encircled Islamic State militants in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, a group that monitors the war said Wednesday.
The state-run news agency SANA said fighting was intense between the pro-government forces and the militants in the village of al-Husseiniyeh on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, across from the remaining militant pockets in the city on the other side.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said al-Husseiniyeh is the only contested village on the eastern side of the river before the militants are fully surrounded.
Russian engineers extended pontoon bridges across the Euphrates, facilitating the dispatch of reinforcements to the eastern banks of the river, where Syrian troops are closing in on IS militants from the west. A video by the Russian Ministry of Defence showed Russian soldiers looking on as military trucks crossed a pontoon.
Backed by Russia, Syrian forces have advanced since early September on Deir el-Zour, where the militants had besieged government troops in a military base in the north and at an air base in the south of the city. Since breaching that siege, government forces have crossed the river, bringing them in a direct race with U.S.backed Syrian forces who are also battling the militants on the eastern side of the river and in rural Deir el-Zour.
The race for control of territory and resources in the oilrich province that straddles the border with Iraq has caused friction between the two sides. U.S-backed fighters accused the Russian-supported government forces and Russian warplanes of targeting them. Russia warned it would retaliate after it said Syrian government troops also came under fire from the U.S-backed Kurdish-led forces.
Russia and the United States say they are working out a deconfliction mechanism to avoid friction in the common fight against Islamic State militants, which brought their own military advisers and special forces to the same battlefield but on competing sides of the fight.
Separately, the Russian Defence Ministry said it has killed five senior members of an al-Qaida-linked group operating in northwestern Syria in an airstrike. Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the five were responsible for the attack on Russian military police in Hama province last week. He didn’t specify when the airstrike took place.
The Russian military said the airstrike was based on intelligence about an upcoming highlevel meeting of the leaders of al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee south of the city of Idlib. It said the five included the leader of the group’s unit in south Idlib province, a financial chief for the group, and an adviser to one of the group’s ideologues, Saudi cleric Abdullah al-Muhaysini.