WASHINGTON — The Islamic State group in Syria now controls only a small pocket of terrain, a French military official said Tuesday, though he cautioned fighting there could take several more months.
BEIRUT – A US-led coalition air strike on Syrian army positions overnight killed at least 12 pro-regime fighters in an area where both sides have been battling holdout jihadists, a monitor said Thursday.
Isis has killed at least 128 people in a Syrian town deep inside regime-held territory, a human rights monitor has said.
Contents: Mattis and Tillerson work to prevent Iraq vs Kurd military confrontation in Kirkuk; ISIS fighters permitted to leave Raqqa, Syria, with human shields; Syria demands ‘immediately’ pullout of Turkey’s forces from Idlib province
Syrian troops and allied forces reached the eastern city of Deir Ezzor on Tuesday, breaching a three-year-old Islamic State siege on parts of the contested city near the Iraqi border, Syrian state TV and a war monitoring group said.
Syrian government troops advanced overnight against the Islamic State group in the country’s north and center, drawing closer to the key battleground of Deir Ezzor, a monitor said.
The Pentagon is strongly disputing Russia’s claim of a joint combat mission against Islamic State targets in Syria.
An anonymous official with the U.S. Central Command told Voice of America News that the U.S. military has been giving Russia advance notice of airstrikes in Syria ever since a strike from the U.S.-led coalition struck Syrian government forces in September.
Contents: New terrorist attack in Kashmir threatens India-Pakistan retaliation; Russia accuses US of intentionally striking Syria’s army to support ISIS
The city of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, scene of a recent mass abduction by the Islamic State, looks to be a decisive battle between ISIS and the Syrian army in the eastern region of the country—and there are indications ISIS is winning.
