Kremlin: Breaking Daesh siege of Deir Ezzor ‘strategic victory’

Syrian government forces hold a position in Kobajjep area, on the southwestern outskirts of Deir Ezzor, on September 5, 2017, during the ongoing battle against Daesh jihadists. (AFP / George Ourfalian)

MOSCOW: The Syrian Army’s breaking of a yearslong siege by Daesh of Deir Ezzor is a “very important strategic victory,” the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
“Commander-in-chief Vladimir Putin has congratulated the Russian military command (in Syria) as well as the command of the Syrian government troops with this very important strategic victory over the terrorists with the aim of freeing Syria from ISIL (Daesh),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
Earlier Tuesday a Russian warship in the Mediterranean fired cruise missiles at Daesh terrorists near the town of Al-Shula to aid the Syrian Army, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“As a result of these strikes there was damage to the infrastructure, underground communications, weapon stockpiles of the terrorists, and this allowed the armed contingents of government forces ... to rapidly advance, break through Daesh defenses and unblock the city (of Deir Ezzor),” Peskov said.
Putin has also “sent a telegram to Syrian President Bashar Assad” praising the victory, he added.
Syrian regime troops and allied fighters, backed by Russian air support, have been advancing toward Deir Ezzor on several fronts in recent weeks, and on Tuesday arrived inside the Brigade 137 base on its western edge.
Regime forces and tens of thousands of civilians in the city have been trapped under the Daesh siege for over two years, facing food and medical shortages.
The army still faces a potentially difficult battle to break the siege on the south of the city and free its remaining neighborhood, and the surrounding province, from Daesh.