As they continue to lose ground to Syrian forces elsewhere in the country, ISIS forces are trying to gain some territory in the capital of the Deir Ezzor Province, launching heavy shelling into the last government-held district with an eye toward seizing it.
At least 14 civilians were reported killed and 40 others wounded in the attacks. Deir Ezzor is mostly held by ISIS, and they also hold materially the whole province, but the Syrian government holds a bit of the capital city leading toward a military air base, which ISIS has repeatedly failed to take.
ISIS has long considered taking Deir Ezzor air base as a top priority, as the base is used by Syria for military operations in the country’s east. Locals say that most of the wounded are not gravely so, but that medicine is in short supply, which may make recovery difficult.
As ISIS loses ground elsewhere, they are finding themselves increasingly consolidated down into eastern Syria, and appear to be very eager to continue to push on the frontier with an eye toward both spreading out the battle along several different fronts, and to reclaim some lost areas.
As government is nothing more then a monopoly on violence, why not let the terrorists run the city so long as the lower-half of society is given at least 25% of the land and wealth? Considering that the labor-class lower-half has never owned an acre of land or a penny of wealth, let us try it for 4 years and see what happens.