Troops closer to besiege IS
Syrian government troops came closer yesterday to encircling the Islamic State group in a pocket of Deir Ezzor city after crossing the adjacent Euphrates River, Moscow and a monitoring group said.
Russian-backed Syrian forces are trying to tighten the noose on jihadists still inside the city on the river's western bank.
The army has sealed off the city on three sides, but IS still controls eastern districts along the river, which both jihadists and civilians had used as an escape route.
Elite Syrian troops crossed the river, Russia's defence ministry said yesterday.
"Today, Syrian government forces, reinforced by a unit of the 4th Armoured Division and with the support of Russian aviation, crossed the Euphrates River in the Deir Ezzor region," a ministry statement said.
It said "shock troops" had already captured several villages on the river's eastern bank from IS and were pushing further east.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP that Syrian commandos and reconnaissance units had crossed the river using a floating bridge.
"This paves the way for completely besieging the city," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
The Euphrates slices diagonally across Deir Ezzor province, an oil-rich eastern region bordering Iraq.
Until yesterday, Syrian troops had been fighting only west of the Euphrates, while the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces waged a rival offensive against IS east of the river.
The SDF has captured more than 500 square kilometres (190 square miles) in northeastern parts of the province, according to the US-led coalition which is providing air cover.
To prevent the two operations from clashing, the coalition, the SDF, Syria's government and Russia have agreed on a "de-confliction line" in northeast Syria.
Meanwhile, outgoing Syria war crimes investigator Carla Del Ponte said yesterday she had quit her post out of frustration over "total impunity", in a fiery farewell speech.
Del Ponte, an accomplished war crimes prosecutor, announced last month that she was leaving the Commission of Inquiry (COI) for Syria, a UN-backed panel that has collected evidence of alleged atrocities committed in the country since the outbreak of civil war in 2011.
"I resign to put an end to my frustration," Del Ponte told the Human Rights Council, after the COI presented its latest report.
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