Russian forces have for the first time spread in the rural parts of the city of Abu Kamal, eastern Syria, after Assad’s forces and supportive militias took over the western bank of the Euphrates river.

Today, on Saturday (October 6), the “Euphrates Post” network, covering the area, reported that dozens of troops and armored vehicles affiliated with the Russian army have arrived at rural Abu Kamal, where they positioned in places near the Iranian forces’ posts.

The spread of the Russian forces corresponds to military operations launched by Assad’s forces against the “Islamic State” personal, fortifying in an enclave in the Deir ez-Zor desert.

They also correspond to the battles fought by the “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) at the last strongholds of the “Islamic State” to the east of the Euphrates, represented by the city of Hajin and the villages surrounding it.

 

The media of the Syrian regime did not report the spread of the Russian forces at the western bank of the Euphrates river.

However, media sources from Deir ez-Zor have confirmed the spread of the Russian forces in Rural Abu Kamal to Enab Baladi, pointing out that the Russian troops have taken positions of many posts in the eastern rural Homs, reaching the Mayadin desert.

In the past a few months, a number of Russian troops died in Deir ez-Zor and its surrounding, the last of which took place in May, in an attack conducted by the “Islamic State” against Assad’s forces’ positions in the desert of Deir ez-Zor.

Back then, the Head of the Defense Committee at the Russian State Duma Vladimir Shamanov said that the attack against an Assad’s forces’ artillery unit in Deir ez-Zor was rapid and well-planned, so they failed, alongside Russians, to avoid casualties.

He added telling “Sputnik” that Deir ez-Zor is known for its difficult natural landscape, and the armed group has planned the attack in advance, driving high-speed Toyota cars, provided with heavy machine guns.

Russia has intervened in Syria, in support of the Syrian regime, late in September 2015, which cost it human casualties within its air and ground forces, the most prominent of these losses was the death of more than a hundred “Russian mercenaries” in an attack conducted by the US-led coalition near Deir ez-Zor.

Moscow has also admitted losing soldiers in the surrounding of the two cities of Deir ez-Zor and Palmyra, during the control operations late in 2017.

Several Iran-affiliated groups, on top of which is the “Revolutionary Guard,” spread in the areas controlled by Assad’s forces in Deir ez-Zor, expanding to the outskirts of the city of Abu Kamal, the western part.

The spread of the Iranian forces is undertaken as a step to protect the strategic land road from Tehran to Damascus, which is threatened to the day by the U.S., positioned at the military base of al-Tanf.