Syrian Islamists have captured Deir az-Zaur and are moving further east for oil

“Our forces occupied the entire Deir az-Zaur. They also took control of the adjacent military airport,” announced the military commander of the HTS units, Hasan Abdul Ghani, according to the BBC station.

On the contrary, Kurdish units led by the SDF coalition, which had controlled the city since Friday, withdrew from the city. Before that, government soldiers left it.

“We will advance to the cities of Raqqa and Hasaka and to other areas in the east of Syria,” Ghani said. According to him, HTS units have already occupied the town of Búkamál on the border with Iraq, where there is an important border crossing.

By advancing to the east of Syria, HTS is trying to consolidate its power in other territories of the fragmented country, which has been led by a transitional government established under the supervision of HTS since Tuesday. There are oil deposits in eastern Syria, and control over them is important for the country’s economy.

The United States has supported the SDF as an ally in the fight against the terrorist Islamic State (IS), and in recent years has worked together to prevent any resurgence of IS. About 900 US troops in Syria cooperated with the Kurdish-led coalition.

Their command discussed the development of the situation in Syria after the fall of President Bashar Assad’s regime on Tuesday with the top American commander for the Middle East, General Erik Kurilla, who then went to Baghdad for negotiations.

The Kurds, who form the main force of the SDF, are in a difficult situation after being pushed out of Deir ez-Zaur, where they clashed with Islamist units. Their position now depends not only on military strength, but also on the US approach to HTS.

The Assad regime, which fell on Sunday after a lightning offensive by rebel forces led by HTS, was an ally of Iran and part of the “Axis of Resistance against Israel” led by Tehran, the BBC recalled.

For many years, Iran sent weapons through Syria to terrorist groups, including the Shiite Hezbollah, with whom Israel was at war in Lebanon until recently. The fighting has now been interrupted by a very fragile truce, which, however, does not prevent Hezbollah from gathering weapons of all kinds.

Therefore, after the fall of Assad, Israel decided to destroy the bases with weapons stores of the Syrian government army and part of the air force and navy before they could fall into the hands of enemy forces. The Israeli armed forces estimate that they managed to destroy 70 to 80 percent of the strategic capabilities of the former Syrian regime.