Deir Ezzur, ISIL’s New Capital: Senior Terrorist Commanders Leaving Raqqa, Mosul

Izvestia newspaper reported that the ISIL has transferred its senior commanders to Deir Ezzur after its major losses in Iraq and Syria.

General Turki Hassan, a prominent military expert, told the Russian daily that the ISIL move to Deir Ezzur is not just confined to the military commanders and includes their family members too.

Also, Brigadier General Yahya Soleiman, a retired army commander, said that the ISIL has decided to attack the Syrian army forces in Deir Ezzur and it has launched massive offensives against the army positions near the highly important Deir Ezzur airbase in the past few days which were all repelled.

Meantime, Boris Dolgov, a Russian analyst, underlined that the ISIL is showing futile resistance because after continued defeats in Iraq and Syria, the terrorist group will be turned into an armed group not in control of any specific area which should always be on the move to find another region to base its command center there, and Deir Ezzur is their base choice to this end.

In the latest development in the Southern and Southwestern outskirts of Deir Ezzur city, the ISIL suffered a number of casualties and its military equipment sustained major damage in the Syrian army soldiers’ attacks, sources in Eastern Syria said.

The sources said that the army soldiers engaged in fierce clashes with the ISIL South of Brigade 137th garrison Southwest of Deir Ezzur city, destroying three barricades and killing or wounding a number of terrorists.

In the meantime, the army’s artillery units shelled heavily ISIL’s movements and positions in areas surrounding Deir Ezzur’s airbase, al-Thardah mountain, al-Makbat region and Tal (hill) Aloush, inflicting heavy losses on the terrorists.

Also, the Syrian air force and army launched heavy strikes on ISIL positions and moves near Deir Ezzur city on Thursday, destroying several oil tankers and bases of the terrorists and killing tens of them.