End of Deir al-Zor Siege Major Step in Fight Against Terror

The breaking of the Deir al-Zor siege is an important step in the fight against terrorism in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Wednesday.

“Indeed, it is an important milestone in the war on terror in Syria —the siege of Deir al-Zor has been broken, where the Syrian troops and civilians remained besieged by the ISIL militants for several years,” he said, TASS reported.

ISIL is the acronym of the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group.

“Now that the siege is broken, conditions have been created for achieving another important task, which is the liberation of Deir al-Zor from terrorists,” the Russian top diplomat added. “Syrian troops supported by our aerospace force continue its activities aimed at achieving this goal,” Lavrov said.

On Tuesday, Syrian government troops broke through the defenses of the IS terrorists on the outskirts of Deir al-Zor and broke the three-year siege of the city. To support the Syrian troops’ offensive, Russia’s Aerospace Force delivered a massive airstrike on the main strongholds, manpower and materiel of the IS near Deir al-Zor, while cruise missiles were launched from the Admiral Essen frigate.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier said that the city of Deir al-Zor was the main point in the Euphrates River area, so the breaking of its siege would to a large extent mark the end of military activities against terrorists in Syria.

According to the head of the main operations department at Russia’s General Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi, after the siege is broken, “the strongest ISIL units active in Syria will face a defeat.” Rudskoi also pointed out that Deir al-Zor was the place where terrorists accumulated their remaining forces, as militants from Iraq’s Mosul and most armed units from Raqqa had moved there.  

  Putin Congratulates Victory

Russian President Vladimir Putin has extended congratulations to Russian and Syrian military with a large-scale victory over terrorists in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor and also sent a telegram on the issue to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

“Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin has congratulated the command of the Russian military group as well as the command of the Syrian state army with such a strategically important victory over terrorists from the standpoint of Syria’s liberation from the Islamic State,” Peskov told journalists.

According to Peskov, “President Putin sent to Syrian President (Bashar) Assad a telegram, in which he highly evaluated this strategic victory and congratulated the Syrian president with such an important step toward the liberation of Syria from terrorism.”