Syria war does not end in Deir al-Zor, says Assad
 

BEIRUT: Syrian president Bashar al-Assad said the victories of the Syrian army and its allies against terrorist organisations do not end in Deir al-Zor province where Islamic State has its last significant stronghold, his office reported on Tuesday.

In a meeting with Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Assad said the war waged by his military and its allies also targets those seeking to "divide and weaken states".

The siege of the Syrian provincial capital of Deir ez-Zor was ended in September by the Syrian army with the support of Russian airstrikes.

After the siege of the Deir ez-Zor province was broken in early September, the Syrian army and Russian Air Force faced fierce resistance from terrorists in the surrounding neighborhoods of the city.

“Every day there is combat,” Ibrahim, a Syrian army officer, who visited the embattled area at the time.

Residents of Deir ez-Zor, who endured years of horror during the IS blockade, said that a lack of basic supplies and the unending shelling turned their lives into a constant nightmare. “We walked the roads in fear, expecting any moment that a shell might hit us and we would die,” one young woman recalled.

“We thought only about death. There was no food, no medicine, no electricity and no water. We’ve been dead already.”

The Deir ez-Zor governorate is located in the western part of Syria, on the border with Iraq, and used to be one of the key pockets of territory that remained under the control of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

Terrorists had been blockading the city for nearly three years.

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the area controlled by Islamic State in Syria has been reduced to less than 5 percent. Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said late last month that prior to the Russian Air Force operation, IS controlled “more than 70 percent of Syrian territory.”

By the end of 2017, the Syrian government is likely to regain control of its eastern border, the head of Russia’s lower house Committee for Defense, Vladimir Shamanov, said. Islamic State will then “cease to exist,” he predicted.

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