President Al-Assad Hails Historic Syrian Army Victory in Deir Ez-Zor

“You have proved, through your steadfastness in the face of the most powerful of terrorist organizations on the face of earth, that you shoulder responsibility, as you have kept the promise and have set a great role model for next generations,” the Assad said in a phone conversation with the officers and soldiers.
 
He added that it will go down in history that “you, though small in number, have given up that which is most precious to you in order to keep the pledge and defend the unarmed citizens, and you have stood your ground and have been able to perform your missions to the fullest and achieved heroics, one after another, without fear or hesitation.”
 
Resounding Victory
 
“History will record that there were some of your comrades who sacrificed their lives and were martyred for the homeland’s sake, and others who were injured and overcame their injuries, using primitive methods, and went back to the battlefield again. That pure blood yielded a resounding victory over the Takfiri terrorist thinking that is backed regionally and internationally,” the Assad added.
 
He went on addressing the commanders and soldiers saying “Here you are now side by side with your comrades who rushed to your help and fought the most ferocious of battles to break the siege on the city and to be with you on the front attack line to liberate the whole region from terrorism and restore security and safety to all parts of the country to the last inch.”
 
Early Tuesday Syrian army forces, backed by allied fighters from popular defense groups, have reached the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor and broken a nearly three-year siege imposed by ISIS Takfiri terrorists on pro-government areas there.
 
Strategic shift
 
Meanwhile, the General Command of the Syrian Armed Forces affirmed that breaking the siege on Deir ez-Zor city is a strategic shift in the war on terrorism and it confirms the ability of the army and its allies and their determination to defeat the terrorist project completely in Syria.
 
“After a series of successful operations, units of our armed forces, in cooperation with the supporting and allied forces and backed by the Syrian and Russian air forces, have completed the second phase of their operations deep in the Syrian Badia (desert) and they managed through qualitative operations and heroic actions to break the siege on our people who were besieged for more than three years in Deir Ezzor,” the Army Command said in a statement.
 
On the importance of this achievement, the statement pointed out that “it constitutes a strategic shift in the war on terrorism and affirms the ability of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies to defeat the terrorist project in Syria and foil the fragmentation plans of its sponsors and supporters.”
 
Russian Role
 
Elsewhere, the Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed that the siege on Deir ez-Zor has been lifted adding that the breakthrough by the Syrian Army was made possible by a Russian cruise missile strike on ISIS terrorists.
 
The Russian strikes destroyed a number of ISIS’s fortified areas, which included artillery positions, ammunition depots, shelters and a network of underground tunnels.
 
The Deir ez-Zor governorate is located in the western part of Syria on the border with Iraq and is one of the few remaining pockets of territory remaining under the control of ISIS terrorists.