Russian Airstrikes Destroy ISIS Equipment in Syria’s Deir Ezzor

In a statement late on Monday the Russian defense ministry has said, “four tanks, 16 all-terrain vehicles with high-caliber machine guns mounted on them as well as two fortified positions that had gun lines.”
 
The statement added that ISIS terrorists have started moving tanks and other heavy weaponry to the Deir Ezzor area in a desperate attempt to hold their positions in the region following the successful offensive of the Syrian Army.
 
It added the extremists are deploying heavy weapons, “including tanks, all-terrain vehicles with high-caliber weapons and mortars mounted on them.”
 
The ministry said further that the actions of the Takfiris apparently show that they “recognize the fact that the staging area around Deir Ezzor is the last stronghold of the international terrorists on the Syrian soil.” The Russian Air Force is meanwhile continuing air strikes against extremists in the area.
 
Syrian government forces supported by Russian military planes are continuing their offensive on terrorists entrenched around Deir Ezzor and are now advancing alongside the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, the statement added.
 
On Sunday, the Russian defense ministry said the offensive operation of Syrian government forces supported by Russian warplanes led to the defeat of the “most capable and best armed group of ISIS in the Euphrates River valley.”
 
The terrorists suffered heavy losses during the battle near the town of Ghanem Ali, located in the eastern part of the Raqqa governorate south of the Euphrates, the ministry said, with around 800 terrorists killed in the operation. Some 13 tanks, 29 pickup trucks with mounted high-caliber machine guns as well as nine artillery pieces were also destroyed in the armed clash Sunday.
 
The key Euphrates city of Deir Ezzor has been under terrorist siege for two and a half years after being cut off from government-held areas in the May 2015 ISIS offensive on Palmyra. The surrounded city, alongside a neighboring military base and airfield, have been sustained with food and ammunition by Russian and Syrian transport planes and helicopters.