ISIS Captures Industrial District of Major East Syrian City

Heavy Fighting as ISIS Advances on Key Military Airport

ISIS has captured the entire industrial district of Deir Ezzor today, a major gain in the ongoing fights with the Syrian government over the major city in the nation’s east. ISIS controls virtually the entire province, but Syrian forces have detained parts of the capital itself, and a major military airport nearby.

Reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights suggested that the fighting has continued to move southward in the city, as ISIS forces grow closer and closer to the military airport. The Syrian state media confirmed heavy fighting, but didn’t mention the lost territory.

The military airport in Deir Ezzor is hugely important to the Syrian military, and has been the staging area for airstrikes across the nation’s northeast throughout the war. So far they’ve always managed to defend it from ISIS advances, but that hasn’t stopped ISIS from making more efforts.

ISIS has recently been losing ground on other fronts in Syria, though they’ve been able to muster counterattacks along the northern border. If they are able to sustain these gains in Deir Ezzor as well, it will likely end suggestions they are on the verge of a major defeat in Syria.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.