Attacks in Syria, Iraq oust IS extremists

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian troops ousted Islamic State extremists Friday from Deir elZour, a major city in eastern Syria, while Iraqi forces pushed into the group’s last major town across the border in Iraq in simultaneous assaults that dealt further territorial losses to the retreating militants.

With their self-proclaimed “caliphate” crumbling, the extremists have lost almost all their urban strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

The defeats left the Syrian town of Boukamal as the only urban area still completely under IS control, along with scattered pockets of territory along the Syria-Iraq border.

Syrian troops backed by Russia and Kurdish-led forces supported by the United States are now racing toward Boukamal from opposite sides of the Euphrates River, triggering concerns that a proxy showdown could ensue between the two sides.

Both the U.S. and Russia have embedded special forces with their respective partners and are supporting their advances with airstrikes. Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said six Tu-22M bombers struck IS targets near Boukamal, while two Russian submarines in the Mediterranean also launched six cruise missiles at IS targets.

“With the loss of Deir el-Zour, Daesh loses its ability to lead terrorist operations by its militants who are now isolated and encircled eastern countryside of the city,” said Gen. Ali Mayhoub, declaring victory in a statement read on Syrian TV. He used an Arabic name for IS in the broadcast.

Video broadcast on state-run media showed the last moments of the ferocious fighting in Deir el-Zour, including shelling by Syrian tanks and plumes of smoke rising over the city’s mostly destroyed neighborhoods of Jamiayat and Jabiliyeh before they were liberated.

The recapture of Deir el-Zour on the west bank of the Euphrates is another victory for President Bashar Assad’s forces and his Russian and Iranian allies. Deir el-Zour, which had been divided into a government-held and an IS-held part for nearly three years, is the largest city in eastern Syria and the capital of the oil-rich province of the same name. It is also the largest city to be recaptured by the Syrian government from IS.