A U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters has seized the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zor, three Syrian sources told Reuters on Friday, the third city to fall out of President Bashar al-Assad's control in a week.
Deir el-Zor, syria © SMS
A U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters has seized the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zor, three Syrian sources told Reuters on Friday, the third city to fall out of President Bashar al-Assad's control in a week.
Two security sources based in eastern Syria said the alliance, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, had taken full control of Deir el-Zor by Friday afternoon.
Omar Abu Layla, an activist from the media platform Deir Ezzor 24 with contacts in the city, told Reuters that Syrian government forces and Iran-backed Iraqi fighters had pulled out of Deir el-Zor before the SDF swept in.
An Iraqi security source said the SDF were also advancing in the direction of the Syrian town of Albukamal, which sits on the border with Iraq, and could take it within the next 24 hours.
The SDF advance came as Syrian rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, bore down on the central Syrian city of Homs on Friday.
The rebels had already taken the northern city of Aleppo last week and the city of Hama earlier this week, dealing the biggest blows to Assad in years.
By Orhan Qereman
The Christian community of Damascus, still mourning a suicide bombing that killed 25 people in June, is celebrating Christmas under heavy security as uncertainty looms over Syria’s political future.
Syria's foreign and defence ministers met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss expanding military, political and economic cooperation, with a focus on strategic collaboration in defence industries, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.
Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces agreed to de-escalate on Monday evening in the northern city of Aleppo, after a wave of attacks that both sides blamed on each other left at least two civilians dead and several wounded.
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