Beirut: US-backed fighters made a sweeping advance against militants Sunday in Syria’s eastern Deir Al Zor province, capturing territory just kilometres from the provincial capital, a monitor said.
Oil-rich Deir Al Zor province borders Iraq and is a strategic prize for both the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Russian-supported government troops.
The SDF announced on Saturday it had begun clearing the Daesh from areas east of the Euphrates River, which cuts diagonally across the province.
By Sunday, fighters from the SDF’s Deir Al Zor Military Council (DEMC) had seized much of the province’s northeast, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“They seized control of a hilltop seven kilometres from the eastern banks of the Euphrates, across the river from Deir Al Zor city,” said Rami Abdul Rahman, who heads the Britain-based monitor.
He attributed the quick gains to the fact that “eastern parts of Deir Al Zor are desert and not densely populated.”
The DEMC’s advance is being backed by the US-led coalition that has been bombing Daesh in Iraq and Syria since 2014 while the regime’s push on the city is being supported by its Russian allies.
The coalition, the SDF, Syria’s government and Russia have agreed on a “de-confliction line” in northeastern Syria to prevent the two assaults from clashing.
Regime forces on Sunday were locked in fierce clashes with Daesh southwest of the city as they prepared a push into neighbourhoods still held by the militants, the Observatory said.
According to the War Media channel operated by regime ally Hezbollah, Syrian troops seized full control of the 450-kilometre road linking the capital to Deir Al Zor for the first time in four years.
“The Syrian army and its allies now control the entire international highway between Deir Al Zor and Damascus, through the cities of Al Sukhna and Palmyra,” it said, referring to other central Syrian cities recaptured from Daesh.
“The international highway had been unusable in the area between Al Sukhna and Deir Al Zor for four years.”
Since 2014, Daesh has held about 60 per cent of the city and much of the surrounding oil-rich province, which borders Iraq.
