The Military Operations Administration, which is responsible for managing the military operations of the Syrian opposition, announced its control over the city of Deir Ezzor and its military airport at the expense of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Military Operations Administration published a statement via Telegram today, Wednesday, December 11, in which Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Abdul Ghani stated, “Our forces have taken full control of the city of Deir Ezzor.”
The Military Operations Administration indicated that following the liberation of the eastern and western rural areas of Deir Ezzor and the flight of regime forces and Iranian militias, the city of Deir Ezzor and its military airport are now “completely liberated.”
A correspondent for Enab Baladi in Deir Ezzor reported that SDF groups withdrew from the city of Deir Ezzor, while opposition factions are still preparing to invade the eastern countryside of the province.
The SDF did not comment on the withdrawal of its forces from the area at the time this news was released, nor did the Military Operations Administration specify the areas it controlled in the eastern and western rural regions.
There are several US bases in the eastern rural areas of Deir Ezzor, where the SDF has been stationed since 2019, when the effective control of the Islamic State group over this geography of Syria ended.
With the military movements that the opposition factions undertook against the Syrian regime forces, which resulted in the downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime with their arrival in Damascus, the SDF advanced towards areas under the regime’s control in the city of Deir Ezzor and the border town of al-Bukamal, adjacent to the Iraqi border.
These areas in eastern Syria are considered a center for cells of the Islamic State group, which are active through various attacks targeting elements of the ousted regime and the SDF.
Previously, the same area was teeming with Iranian-backed militias, but these militias, which included fighters of foreign nationalities, disappeared from the area with the fall of the regime on December 8 of this year.
In recent days, Deir Ezzor province, especially the areas that were previously under al-Assad’s control, witnessed tension and clashes between several military forces over the past ten days.
While the Military Operations Administration was attempting to gain control over the SDF in Deir Ezzor, the flights of the US-led International Coalition prevented opposition fighters from advancing.
On December 6, the regime withdrew its forces from Deir Ezzor towards the city of Homs in central Syria, coinciding with the Military Operations Administration offensive on the city, following its control over Aleppo and Hama, which culminated in the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus.