Regime forces advance more towards Deir Ezzor city and become about 19 km away from the city’s southern entrance
The regime forces continue their penetration into Deir Ezzor province, where the “Islamic State” organization controls most of it, in an attempt to reduce the size of area controlled by the organization and to regain the control of the province, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that the regime forces managed to achieve advancement within operations towards Deir Ezzor city, where they took the control of more areas which they advanced in several kilometers towards the city, reducing the distance between the last point on the highway connecting between Al-Sukhnah city and Deir Ezzor city, and the southern entrance of Deir Ezzor city, to a distance of about 19 km, thus, the area which the regime forces penetrated in, increased to more than 3 thousand square kilometers of Deir Ezzor province
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also observed on the 27th of July 2017 that the regime forces were able for the first time to enter the western administrative borders of Deir Ezzor, while the control of al-Bashri Mountain enabled the regime forces to monitor by firepower and firearm of vast areas in its vicinity, where Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published on the 31st of August that the regime forces supported by their loyal gunmen of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, have managed to achieve a strategic advancement and controlled the largest mountains of the Syrian Desert, where these forces took control of al-Bashri Mountain in the triangle of Al-Raqqah – Deir Ezzor – Homs, which is characterized by its rugged terrain, and is one of the most important strongholds of the “Islamic State” organization in Syria, this mountain witnessed the visits of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi -the leader of the “Islamic State” organization- to meet with military and security commanders of the organization in earlier times. The mountain extends through the administrative borders of 3 provinces and is one of the important positions on which the organization has been depending in the supply operations and for securing its commanders.
This advancement enabled the regime forces to control about 3000 square kilometers of the Syrian Desert, enabling them to go deep and achieve a big advancement in the western Desert of Deir Ezzor, also the control of the Mountain and putting firepower in the mountain will ensure the monitor and firearm control of vast areas of villages and towns of the western countryside to Deir Ezzor, where the regime forces were able to achieve this control in the area by advancing under a cover of intense missile and artillery shelling by the regime forces, and by the bombardment by the Russian warplanes and regime’s warplanes on al-Bashri Mountain and its surroundings, also the by this advancement the regime forces were able to unify both of the previous advancement points in Deir Ezzor, which are the point of advancement of the eastern countryside of area Al-Raqqah, and point of advancement of the road of al-Sukhnah – Deir Ezzor.
It is worth mentioning that the regime forces managed on the 17th of July 2017 to achieve an important advancement taking control of oil fields in the eastern half of the southern countryside of Al-Raqqah. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that this important advancement allowed the regime forces to reach the outskirts of the strategic mountain of Al-Bashri, also the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published on the 23rd of June 2017 that al-Nujabaa Movement and militiamen loyal to the regime managed to control the areas of al-Wa’er dam, al-Wa’er valley and Ard al-Washwash and several other positions within the areas controlled by the “Islamic State” organization, they have managed to enter the administrative border of Deir Ezzor province from its southeastern countryside near the Iraqi border, where this strategic progress allows the regime forces to expand their controlled areas on the Syrian-Iraqi border.