Syrian government forces are closing in on the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, which has been besieged by so-called Islamic State (IS) for three years.<\/p>\n
A rapid advance through the desert on Sunday brought troops to within 10km (6 miles) of the government enclave in the city’s west, pro-government media said.<\/p>\n
A monitoring group also reported that they had reached the edge of the government-held Brigade 137 base.<\/p>\n
IS controls half of Deir al-Zour and much of its surrounding province.<\/p>\n
It is the jihadist group’s last major stronghold in Syria, with the de fact capital of Raqqa under siege by a US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters.<\/p>\n
How Iraqi courts deal with IS suspects<\/p>\n
Islamic State group: The full story<\/p>\n
There about 93,000 civilians living in the government enclave in Deir al-Zour. They have been dependent on supply flights by the Syrian military and air drops of aid by the United Nations for years.<\/p>\n
Malnutrition was said to be widespread in early 2016 and there were unverified reports of people dying from starvation.<\/p>\n
The official Sana news agency cited provincial governor Mohammed Ibrahim Samra as saying that residents had celebrated on the streets on Sunday evening after learning that soldiers and pro-government militiamen were close.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“They are filled with joy waiting to welcome the heroes of the army, who are going to break the siege,” he said.<\/p>\n
The military media unit run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, whose fighters have played a key role in the advance towards Deir al-Zour, broadcast what it said was video footage of the celebrations.<\/p>\n
It also reported that pro-government forces had taken control of hills in the city’s western countryside and cut off IS supply routes on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Image copyrightAFP<\/p>\n
Image caption<\/p>\n
Soldiers and allied militiamen have advanced rapidly through the desert west of Deir al-Zour<\/p>\n
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, confirmed that there had been violent clashes and intense shelling in the area.<\/p>\n
Later, the group’s director Rami Abdul Rahman said soldiers and militiamen had reached the edge of the Brigade 137 base and were battling militants inside.<\/p>\n
“If the regime soldiers succeed, they will have broken the siege on the base and the neighbouring Deir al-Zour district of al-Jura,” he told AFP news agency.<\/p>\n
However, there was no confirmation from Hezbollah or pro-government media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Syrian government forces are closing in on the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, which has been besieged by so-called Islamic State (IS) for three years. A rapid advance through the desert on Sunday brought troops to within 10km (6 miles) of the government enclave in the city’s west, pro-government media said. A monitoring group also reported that they had reached the edge of the government-held Brigade 137 base. IS controls half of Deir al-Zour and much of its surrounding province. It is the jihadist group’s last major stronghold in Syria,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9863"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9865,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9863\/revisions\/9865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}