Syria troops closer to besieging IS after crossing key river

MOSCOW- 18 Sep 2017:Syrian government troops came closer Monday to encircling the Islamic State group in a pocket of Deir Ezzor city after crossing the adjacent Euphrates River, Moscow and a monitoring group said.

Russian-backed Syrian forces are trying to tighten the noose around IS jihadists still inside the eastern city, which lies on the western banks of the Euphrates.

The army has sealed off the city from three sides, but IS still controlled eastern districts along the river, which both jihadists and civilians had used as an escape route.

On Monday, elite Syrian troops crossed the river, Russia's defence ministry said.

"Today, Syrian government forces, reinforced by a unit of the 4th Armoured Division and with the support of Russian aviation, crossed the Euphrates River in the Deir Ezzor region," the ministry said in a statement.

It said "shock troops" had already captured several villages on the river's eastern banks from IS and were pushing further east.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP that Syrian commandos and reconnaissance units had crossed the river using a floating bridge.

"This paves the way for completely besieging the city," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

The Euphrates slices diagonally across the province of Deir Ezzor, an oil-rich region that borders Iraq.

Until Monday, Syrian troops had been fighting only west of the Euphrates, while the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces waged a rival offensive against IS to the river's east.

The SDF has captured more than 500 square kilometres (190 square miles) from IS in northeastern parts of the province, according to the US-led coalition, which is providing air cover.

To prevent the two operations from clashing, the coalition, the SDF, Syria's government and Russia have agreed on a "de-confliction line" in northeast Syria.

That line runs from the neighbouring province of Raqa southeast along the Euphrates River to Deir Ezzor.

It was tested on Saturday after the US-led coalition and the SDF accused Russian warplanes of bombing SDF fighters east of the Euphrates, a claim Moscow has denied.

General Joe Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he spoke to his Russian counterpart General Valery Gerasimov on Sunday.

"We have been engaged at every level to re-establish de-confliction at the Euphrates river," he said.

Russian jets were pursuing IS fighters who had fled across the Euphrates when their jets struck close enough to injure SDF troops nearby, according to Dunford.