One day after losing both Kobane (‘Ayn Al-‘Arab) and Diyala (Iraqi province), the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) has begun to lose significant ground in the Deir Ezzor Governorate after failing repeatedly to infiltrate the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) frontline defenses at the imperative Military Airport in the western countryside.
The SAA’s 104th Airborne Brigade of the Republican Guard (Harss Al-Jamhouri) – in cooperation with local tribes – has recaptured the Observatory Facility at the Abu Bardan Quarter of Haweeja Sakr (Sakr Island), killing scores of ISIS militants in the process. The SAA now controls 75 percent of Sakr Island, with only the area north of the Eastern Bank Fisheries left for the loyalist forces to capture.
North of the Deir Ezzor Military Airport, the 104th Brigade – led by Brigadier General Issam Zahreddine – carried out a number of attacks on ISIS militants at Al-Waaqa’at Farms, seizing a rocket warehouse, while killing over 20 enemy combatants. The SAA’s assault overpowered the ISIS militants at Al-Waaqa’at Farms, resulting in their eventual withdrawal from this rural area located northeast of the Battalion Base in the Deir Ezzor countryside.
At the village of Haweeja Al-Mari’iyyah, the 104th Brigade – in cooperation with the 137th Brigade of the 17th Division – successfully repelled the fierce ISIS attack that resulted in the loyalist forces going on the offensive and regaining control of 80 percent of this integral area adjacent to the Deir Ezzor Military Airport.
A list of identified ISIS militants killed over the last 48 hours in Deir Ezzor:
- ‘Uthmaan Ahmad Al-Kassaar
- ‘Abdel-Razzaaq Al-Naafa’
- Mohmmad Al-Naafa’
- ‘Ubeida Hamidi Al-Hamaadeh
- Hamid Jaloud Al-‘Abeed
- Firaas Al-Sawa’an
- Hassan Saleh Al-Baasha
- ‘Abdullah Al-Wajiyya
- Monzer ‘Abdel-Rasheed
- Bakr Al-‘Ajaami
- Mohannad ‘Awaad Al-Waka’a
- Maaher ‘Ali Al-Tabaan
- Iyad Shaaher Al-‘Assaaf
- Saleh Maheedi Saleh Al-‘Ibrahim
- Mohammad Raafa’
- ‘Abdul-Razzaaq Raafa’
- Ibrahim Ismaa’eel Al-Khaayar
