Deir ez-Zor

The attack on the largest US military base in Syria has resulted in the deaths of at least six Kurdish fighters. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key ally of the United States in the fight against jihadism, issued a statement attributing the attack to "mercenaries of the regime" of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In a high-stakes move, the United States conducted a strike on pro-Iranian targets in Syria, resulting in the reported death of nine individuals associated with Iran-backed groups in the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization, confirmed the casualties, emphasizing that the strike targeted sites utilized by pro-Iranian factions.

The U.S. has sent a group of experts to Syria's biggest oil field in Deir ez-Zor province currently under the occupation of the YPG/PKK terror group, in hopes of increasing production.

Egyptian and Saudi experts, who were tasked by the U.S. with enhancing oil production at al-Omar oil field, arrived in the region on Dec. 13, according to local sources.

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 Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced this on Tuesday.

"There are Russian nationals in Syria who have come there of their free will and for different goals. It is not for the Foreign Ministry to assess the legitimacy and legality of such decisions they have made," said a statement carried by TASS.

Syria is fully liberated from terrorists, all units of the Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS) terror group (outlawed in Russia) have been destroyed, Chief of Russia's General Staff, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, said at an annual briefing for foreign defense attaches on Wednesday.

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.

Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov has called on the US-led international coalition and the opposition supported by it not to hamper the actions of the Syrian government forces against terrorists.

Outgoing army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the Iraq-based commander of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has made it clear that Washington will continue to cooperate with the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) inside the Kurdish-Syrian Arab alliance Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in its bid to sweep jihadists from the Middle Euph

Syrian Kurds are taking critical steps to deal with the threat of being caught in a vise between their worsening relations with the Damascus regime, and Turkey’s possible cross-border operations. Syria’s Kurds have just proposed a new governmental structure comprising three federal regions and six cantons in the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria (previously known as Rojava).