Syrian Army, Allies Close In on Daesh in Dayr al-Zawr

Date: 17 September 2017 - 20:20

News ID: ۴۴۲۷۴

DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Syrian troops seized a suburb of the eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr on Sunday, tightening the noose around Daesh terrorists, a Syrian military source said.
The army pushed into the city this month with the help of Russian air power, breaking a Daesh siege of an enclave there that had lasted three years.
On Sunday, the Syrian army and allied forces captured al-Jafra district on the western bank of the Euphrates river, the military source said.
"They have no outlet except crossing the Euphrates towards the eastern bank and fleeing towards the desert, or (the towns) al-Bukamal and al-Mayadin,” the source told Reuters.
The terror outfit started its campaign of bloodshed and destruction against the Arab country in 2014, taking over vast swathes of territory. It, however, was forced out of much of its turf a year later against Army advances, which have been backed by Russian aerial support, Lebanese Shia fighters, and Iranian military advisory assistance.
Earlier this month, the Syria Army and its allies broke a nearly three-year-old Daesh siege on government-held parts of the provincial capital.
As the combined forces began building on their gains, the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed group of mostly Kurdish militants, said it was also launching an attack on the province from Euphrates’ eastern side.
In another development, the Russian military flatly rejected a claim that its warplanes have bombed the positions of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria’s flashpoint province of Dayr al-Zawr.
"This is not possible. Why would we bomb them?” the AFP quoted Igor Konashenkov, Russia’s military spokesman at the Hmeymim Air Base, as saying. The air base, located in Syria’s western province of Latakia, is Moscow's main outpost for its counterterrorism airstrikes in the Arab country.
Earlier in the day, the U.S.-backed militia claimed that they had allegedly come under attack from Russian fighter jets in the strategic and oil-rich eastern province, a complex battlefield where Syrian troops, backed by aerial cover from the Russian air force, and the SDF forces are carrying out parallel yet separate offensives against the Daesh terrorist group.
The United States and its allies have been bombarding what they call Daesh positions inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate. They also support some groups, such as the SDF, claiming that they help them in their alleged fight against Daesh terrorists. Damascus has repeatedly voiced its strong opposition against operations of the so-called coalition in the Arab country.
Different foreign-backed terrorist groups have been wreaking havoc in Syria since 2011. The government controls the main urban centers in the west of the country and has recaptured much of the eastern desert from Daesh in recent months.