This week, ISIS made a desperate attempt to block the road from Palmyra to Deir-ez-Zor, cutting off the main supply route of the Syrian army.
Moving back to Syria, we must admit that the situation there is not easy. This week, ISIS made a desperate attempt to block the road from Palmyra to Deir-ez-Zor, cutting off the main supply route of the Syrian army. At some point they even succeeded, but later the attack was repulsed. Our war correspondent Evgeniy Poddubny has the details.
These are the consequences of the attack by the pseudo-Caliphate radical Islamists on the route that connects Deir-ez-Zor to the rest of Syria. Trucks were shelled, the drivers were killed. These are civilian cars with food that headed to the city.
The militants shot everyone they saw on the road. ISIS leaders managed to transfer more than 1,000 people to Syria from Iraq, who were supposed to slow down the offensive of government troops.
The terrorists organized counterattacks aimed at cutting the main supply route to Deir-ez-Zor. The militants attacked the strongholds of government forces here, in Ash Shula, which is 30 km from the city, and near As Sukhnah, which is closer to Palmyra.
Despite the fact that the terrorists acted boldly and decisively, government forces managed to repulse the attacks and drive away the pseudo-Caliphate militants.
Meanwhile, ISIS leaders coordinated their actions with Al-Nusra militants, judging from the time and direction of the blows. The Russian Ministry of Defence has already stated that accurate air strikes on militants' gatherings destroyed about 2,000 militants within 10 days.
Nevertheless, the situation is still tense. ISIS terrorists have intensified both in the east and in the center of the country. The fighting is near the village of Al-Qaryatayn. The militants are trying to push near Palmyra. At the same time, the Syrian army offensive in Deir-ez-Zor and the surroundings is underway.
This area in the north-west of Deir-ez-Zor has been liberated only recently. But Russian EOD specialists have already started demining residential buildings and roads. Even though ISIS terrorists are very close, on the other side of the Euphrates.
This is how the joint demining detachment works, examining every meter of the liberated area, using the latest equipment, metal detectors, radio signal suppression systems, Tigr and Typhoon armored vehicles, the most modern personal protective equipment.
Pyotr Komov, EOD team commander: "There is a lot of tension, as the enemy's artillery is working. We've found many anti-personnel mines, anti-tank anti-removal mines, as well as gas cylinders, improvised explosive devices".
Russian EOD specialists have already found and neutralized more than 4,000 explosive items. While retreating, ISIS militants mine buildings and install landmines on the roads. An anti-removal mine has been found in this unfinished building. The military is destroying this explosive device on the spot.
Mine obstacles are eliminated by a special robot complex Uran-6. An operator remotely controls the machine that mechanically destroys anti-personnel mines.
The militants are still shelling residential areas. Up to 10 mines a day explode in the streets of Deir-ez-Zor. This family has lived on the front line ever since the war started.
- Only God helps us. I can show you where a mine fell and killed my son. Here my son was killed. Now we're in fear, so we live on the first floor.
This house is separated from the terrorists' positions by no more than 300 meters. They had nowhere to run, so they stayed in their own house.
Hostilities continue here, but people say they're returning to normal life.
The boy: «See what I have? Want some?». He is 3, he was born when the city was besieged. A few days ago he first tried tomatoes and candy. It's for the first time in 3 years that the family has such a dinner: traditional Syrian cuisine, the dishes that are cooked for special occasions only.
- Stop filming, just have dinner with us finally!
- We returned to normal life a couple weeks ago, before that we had nothing, we lived in fear until today. Of course, it's not entirely safe, but more peaceful. In difficult times, when we were starving, soldiers who served near our house were helping us, we're grateful to them.
This family is sure that the hardest times are over, even though their house is still on the front line, with the war continuing.
Evgeniy Poddubny, Ruben Mirobov and Stanislav Yelovsky for Vesti — News of the Week from Deir-ez-Zor, Syria.