The city has been in a contested state for years, but Syrian government forces over the weekend suffered significant losses in the eastern half of the major eastern city of Deir Ezzor, as a major push from ISIS on two different fronts caused a number of casualties and forced Syrian troops to fall back out of some key neighborhoods.
A flurry of suicide attacks and rocket fire on Saturday ushered in a weekend of heavy fighting, with over 80 reported slain across the area, including civilians and combatants, though as is often the case both sides contested how many losses they each suffered.
ISIS controls the vast majority of Deir Ezzor Province, though the city itself has long been contested. The Deir Ezzor military airport remains under government control, after years of failed ISIS assaults, though this latest push has once again led to ISIS fighters getting dangerous close to the airport.
The military airport there has long been the last major such site for the Syrian military to launch airstrikes in the eastern half of the country, and its loss would be a devastating setback for them, as well as a major boost for ISIS. This fact has meant, despite a desperate attempt to defend the site, ISIS continues to try to make inroads in the vicinity with hopes of eventually forcing their way in.
Though fighting erupts in Deir Ezzor pretty regularly, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights described this as the most intense fighting they’ve seen in over a year, suggesting that despite losses suffered elsewhere in the region, ISIS remains determined to gain ground in this important province.
This has started to remind me of Aleppo offensive. In Aleppo — Syrian forces
approached the region first by cutting it off. But then a strange ritual occured. Syrian forces were attacking from the North, then from the South. In esch case they gained a little, then lost it the following days. Same occured from the south. Sytrian Army rushed reinforcements to prevent loss of positions, but thst weakened the other end. Nusra plsnned major offensive to push Army back before reinforcements –as it looked like they had the strenght to power their way out of the encirclement. But as they did that –Syrian Army unexpectedly cut the East Aleppo in half. They were not heading to reinforce the weak Southern end under attack, they instead attacked poorly defended middle. ISIS is in similar position. It has to keep Army from Deir Azzor, and block Kurds from Kobani. They are getting blocked towards Mosul by Iraqi Shia volunteers.
And more dangerously they are keeping Turkish army st bay by Al-Bab. And somewhere in the middle, Syrian army is focusing on West Palmyra to fix the natural gas pumping station. ISIS clearly thinks it will pay to get Deir Azzor. And they have had good intel on Turkish artillery positions, but dare not relax around Al-Bab. What if the natural gas facility repair project — now getting past Palmyra, is paving a way to facilitate a cut off of Deir Azzor from Raqqa? All of this posturing around main access points to Raqqa region looks like a temptation fir ISIS to strike. And weaken something else.
It will be interesting to see how things evolve once new administration takes over.
That’s a curious post. Do you Generals in your armchairs use maps to keep track of the situation you describe? If so then printing your maps for us would help us to understand. I’m going to pass on the info but it’s pretty sure somebody will be interested.
Sorry for a curious post, it was rushed.
I follow site Al-Masdar News. It has an advantage that has no opinions, but kind of blow by blow events — often hourly. With maps. Not very good maps, but if you follow the events, eventually all those places, roads, and general geography, including who is holding what — falls in place.
This is how I followed blow by blow operations leading to the liberation of Aleppo. And I noticed the pattern. The pattern being, Syrian Army attacking from North and South, and Nusra often regaining what they lost. It appeared that Syrian Army could not really make a dent, what actually created conditions for Nusra to regroup, and to go for counter-offensives. At first, it looked like it is working. Syrian Army got beat back from the southern end of East Aleppo, and was ready when Syrian Army announced fresh reinforcements. But the reinforcements suddenly had a different plan — Al-Nusra was stretched, and in the belief that they are gaining ground, they exposed the middle. End.
That made me think of the curious goings on around Raqqa province, with Turkey attacking from one side, Kurds not doing much, but are blocking another side, then the goings on at Deir Azzor, fighting that intensified. Why would ISIS intensify, unless they think they can prevail. But if they do, much of their reinforcements will be far from the central Raqqa. And the rather quiet progress of Syrian army around Palmyra. Just feels like cat and mouse game. It may not be anything, but as I said, I saw that curious game of shadows weeks before Aleppo was cut in half.