Deir ez-Zor Governorate

Dust clouds have covered the skies of southeastern provinces, while the visibility range has decreased due to the dust transportation from Syria.

Layers of dust coated vehicles and apartment balconies in the provinces of Şırnak, Bingöl, Mardin and Tunceli late on May 23.

The U.S. has started construction of two new military bases in Syria's oil-rich Deir ez-Zor governorate.

One of the three suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) detained in the northwestern Turkish province of Sakarya could be the "emir" of Syria's Deir ez-Zor region, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on May 2, just five days after another suspected Deir ez-Zor "emir" was caught in Turkey.

The Syrian government declared victory over Islamic State in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Friday, a big blow to the jihadists as their last stronghold in Syria crumbles, Reuters reported. 

Deir al-Zor, on the west bank of the Euphrates River, is the largest and most important city in eastern Syria, and is the center of the country's oil production.

Russian sappers have started a large-scale de-mining effort in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday, cited by TASS.

In total, the operation involves more than 170 servicemen and 40 pieces of special and engineering equipment.

A Russian lieutenant general died in Deir Ez Zor in Syria in a munitions shootout by Islamic state militants, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

"The senior commander of the Military Advocates Group, Lieutenant General Valeriy Asapov, was at the command line of the Syrian troops, where he helped to run the release of the city of Deir Ez Zor," a ministry message said.

Syrian troops seized a suburb of the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Sept. 17, tightening the noose around Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Syrian military source said.

The army pushed into the city this month with the help of Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, breaking an ISIL siege of an enclave there that had lasted three years.

The Islamic State media reported, on Thursday, that 100 civilians were either killed or wounded in air strikes carried out by Russian warplanes, in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, Iraqi News reports.

With a sudden lunge through jihadist lines, the Syrian military  and its allies on Sept. 4 came to within three kilometres of relieving the Euphrates city of Deir al-Zor, where Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has besieged an army garrison and 93,000 civilians for years. 

The forces of the Syrian regime have progressed even further towards the city of Deir ez Zor, the enclave of government surrounded by the Islamic State group in the eastern part of the country. This was announced today by the Syrian Human Rights Observatory quoted by the agencies.