Twin Iraq, Syria attacks as IS loses last city

Syrian troops yesterday retook the last major city where the Islamic State group had a presence as Iraqi forces punched into the jihadists' last urban bastion across the border.

The simultaneous assaults on Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria and Al-Qaim in western Iraq dealt fresh blows to IS in its former heartland, leaving Albu Kamal, on the Syrian side of the border, the last town of note under its full control.

The jihadist group that once laid claim to a self-styled "caliphate" spanning swathes of Syria and Iraq has seen its proto-state crumble in recent months under the pressure of multiple offensives.

In October, it lost its one-time de facto Syrian capital Raqa after an assault of more than four months waged by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance.

Yesterday, Syrian state media announced that the army, backed by Russian firepower, had recaptured all of Deir Ezzor city, in the oil-rich east of the country.

"The army announces full control of Deir Ezzor city," state television said in a breaking news alert, citing sources on the ground.

State news agency SANA also reported that Deir Ezzor had been "fully liberated."

IS has now been driven from most of its strongholds in Deir Ezzor. Its last major position is the town of Albu Kamal, though it also holds a string of smaller towns and villages and at least one oil field, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Iraqi forces entered Al-Qaim yesterday, military commanders said, unleashing a barrage of artillery fire along with Iraqi and US-led coalition airstrikes.

Troops from the army and the elite Counter Terrorism Service "have started the assault on the centre of Al-Qaim," Staff Major General Noman Abed al-Zobai, the commander of the 7th Division, told AFP from the scene.