LATEST: Last Supply Route Into Islamic State-Controlled Deir Ez Zor Blown Up
Opposition activists report that more than 100 people were killed in Syria on Sunday as regime warplanes attacked Islamic State-controlled territory in the east of the country.
The Local Coordination Committees said 102 deaths were confirmed. Of these, 51 were in Hasakah Province, largely taken by the Islamic State this year from insurgents.
The Syrian military, fearing attacks on its remaining positions in the area, shelled and raided villages. One unconfirmed report, backed by video, claimed that Kurdish YPG militia joined the Syrian army in executing 45 people, including women and children, with dozens of bodies and wounded arriving at the Dar al-Shifa hospital in the city of Qamishli.
The attacked villages were near the town of Tal Hamis, occupied by the Islamic State and under pressure by Kurdish forces.
Last Supply Route Into Islamic State-Controlled Deir Ez Zor Blown Up
The last supply route into eastern Syria’s Deir Ez Zor, largely controlled by the Islamic State, was blown up on Monday morning.
“The explosion took place after charges were placed on the sides of the bridge and detonated by remote control,” a spokesperson for the city told Syria Direct.
The suspension bridge connects Deir Ez Zor, on the southwest of the Euphrates River, with suburbs to the northeast. Regime forces occupy the area just to the west of Deir Ez Zor, hindering the movement of supplies over land by the Islamic State.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar, which supports the Assad regime, claimed Syrian special forces and Army engineers carried out the explosion.
The Islamic State expelled insurgents from the city this spring as it advanced along the Euphrates and eastern Syria.
Insurgent Commander: “We Don’t Need Training or Men. We Need Quality Weapons”
A telling quote from a commander in the Free Syrian Army, in a Reuters overview on the Obama Administration’s proposed $500 million aid to the insurgency:
We don’t really need more training. And we have enough soldiers. What we need are quality weapons.
We need anti-aircraft weapons. We need anti-tank weapons. If we don’t get those, we can’t win, no matter what the United States does.
As Reuters reporter Jason Szep notes:
Under the current legislation in Congress, Wawi is unlikely to get what he wants….
The administration has resisted providing powerful weapons requested by the rebels such as surface-to-air missiles due to fears they could be captured or used against America or its allies.
Video: Civilians Fleeing Fighting in Quneitra Province in Southwest Syria, Near Israel Border
Civilians fleeing fighting in Quneitra Province and seeking to cross the border with the demilitarized zone with Israel:
Insurgents have been advancing this summer through the province and now control the vast majority of the area.
Opposition Knocks Back Misleading Media Reports of “Ceasefire” with Islamic State
The Syrian opposition has dismissed misleading media reports of an insurgent ceasefire with the Islamic State.
The claims started on Friday when the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put out the story that the Syrian Revolutionary Force, affiliated with the insurgency, had reached an agreement with the jihadists in the Damascus suburb of Hajar al-Aswad.
Assertions followed that the Free Syrian Army had also halted fighting with the Isalmic State.
A Syrian National Coalition official said over the weekend that no Free Syrian unit had agreed a ceasefire. He said there
was a 24-hour truce between ISIS and a Free Syrian Army brigade, the “Sons of the Golan”, to allow both sides to retrieve bodies of those killed in fighting.
Jamal Maarouf, the leader of the Syrian Revolutionary Front, issued a statement denying any arrangement with the jihadists in Hajar al-Aswad, south of Damascus.
