MOSCOW/BEIRUT: The Syrian army’s breaking of a years-long siege by the militant Islamic State group of Deir Ezzor city is a “very important strategic victory,” the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

“Commander-in-chief Vladimir Putin has congratulated the Russian military command (in Syria) as well as the command of the Syrian government troops with this very important strategic victory over the terrorists with the aim of freeing Syria from ISIL,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Earlier on Tuesday a Russian warship in the Mediterranean fired cruise missiles at IS fighters near the town of Al-Shula to aid the Syrian army, the Russian defence ministry said.

“As a result of these strikes there was damage to the infrastructure, underground communications, weapon stockpiles of the terrorists, and this allowed the armed contingents of government forces... to rapidly advance, break through IS defences and unblock the city (of Deir Ezzor),” Peskov said.

Putin has also “sent a telegram to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad” praising the victory, he added.

Syria’s army and allied fighters, backed by Russian air support, have been advancing towards Deir Ezzor on several fronts in recent weeks, and on Tuesday arrived inside the Brigade 137 base on its western edge.

Government forces and tens of thousands of civilians in the city have been trapped under the IS siege for over two years, facing food and medical shortages. Tanks and troops pressed quickly towards a government-held enclave in the city, where IS has trapped thousands of civilians and Syrian soldiers since 2014.

The advance has opened a land route linking that territory to the outside.

The advance into strategic prize Deir Ezzor, a city on the Euphrates river and once the centre of Syria’s oil industry, is a significant victory for President Bashar al-Assad against IS and another stinging blow to the group.

The group is being fought in Syria by government forces, backed by allies Iran and Russia, and separately by a US-led alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters. In Iraq, the jihadists were driven out of their Mosul stronghold earlier this year.

IS still holds half of Deir Ezzor city and much of the province, however, as well as parts of its former stronghold Raqa to the northwest, where the US-backed offensive is being fought.

“Our armed forces and allies, with support from Syrian and Russian warplanes, achieved the second phase of their operations in the Syrian desert,” Syria’s military said. “They have managed to break the siege.”

State media and a war monitoring group said advancing forces had linked up with the besieged troops at a garrison on the western edge of the city.

Footage on Syrian state TV showed soldiers cheering near the garrison. State media said residents in government-held parts of the city were celebrating the advance.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a nearby military air base and three districts remained under siege by IS. Battles still raged around the city, the British-based war monitor said.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2017