ISIS Offensive in Deir Ezzor Ends with the Syrian Army Recapturing Tal Kroum

It took only eight days for the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) to quit their large-scale offensive at the Deir Ezzor Military Airport, marking the third time this year that they failed capture the aforementioned base that is under the control of the Syrian Arab Army’s 137th Artillery Brigade of the 17th Reserve Division and the 104th Airborne Brigade of the Republican Guard.

Initially, the terrorist group was successful, capturing the Artillery Battalion Base located at the southwestern flank of the Deir Ezzor Military Airport; however, ISIS was unable to bypass the Syrian Armed Forces’ frontline defenses at the southern perimeter after the arrival Major General Issam Zahreddine and his soldiers from Syrian Arab Army’s elite 104th Airborne Brigade.

Following their repeated attempts to break-through the Syrian Armed Forces’ defenses at the Deir Ezzor Military Airport, the ISIS central command was forced to withdraw many of their militants from this front after the Shaytat Tribesmen launched an offensive to capture the Hikmat Hospital inside the town of Al-‘Asharat in east Deir Ezzor.

The final straw for ISIS came when the Syrian Arab Army’s 137th Brigade countered the ISIS fighters at the Bardeh Mountains (west of Deir Ezzor City), killing 19 enemy combatants and destroying four armored vehicles that were mounted with 23mm anti-aircraft machine guns before they were able to push-out the remaining terrorists to the hilltop at Tal Kroum.

With their backs against the wall at Tal Kroum, the terrorist group found themselves surrounded at three different flanks; this resulted in a short assault by the Syrian Armed Forces, as all of the ISIS militants withdrew from this strategic hilltop towards the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor City.