"It helped a lot to switch the military effort of the Syrian army and the resistance to the eastern Syrian desert," the commander said, adding that thousands of troops had arrived from the battle on the Lebanon border. Meanwhile, as the army and its allies have forced other militant pockets to surrender, including an Islamic State enclave on Syria's border with Lebanon a week ago, it has been able to transfer more troops to the desert campaign. The very rapid advance in recent days was the result of heavy preparatory bombardment, a multi-pronged assault and gains in high ground commanding the surrounding area, the commander said. Those offensives have accelerated since linking up last month, enclosing two big Islamic State pockets and overrunning all but a small portion of one of them, near the town of al-Salamiya.Īs the army and its allies have advanced on Deir al-Zor, Islamic State has pulled reinforcements from al-Mayadin and used its usual tactics of booby traps, mines and sudden raids, the commander in the pro-Assad military alliance said. "The army has been advancing in a rapid and calculated way from all directions," a Syrian military source said, referring to the months-long campaign across the desert.Īided by Russian jets and an alliance of Shi'ite militias backed by Iran, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Syrian army has captured swathes of the central and eastern deserts in parallel offensives from Palmyra and al-Resafa. Water is also pumped twice a week to our residents, aid is distributed daily," governor Samra said.įor Assad, the weekend's lightning advance caps months of steady progress after government forces turned from their victory over rebels in Aleppo last December to push eastwards against Islamic State. The institutions are running, the bakeries. "Despite all this and despite the shelling and injured, things are running in the city. The United Nations said in August it estimated there were 93,000 civilians in the government's Deir al-Zor pocket, where conditions were "extremely difficult". Closeĭuring the long siege, the city has been supplied via high-altitude air drops. The email address you have provided is already registered.