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DAMASCUS, Sept. 5-- Following days of intense battles on the outskirts of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria, the Syrian forces and allied fighters broke Tuesday the three-year siege of the Islamic State (IS) to government-held parts in the city. Earlier in the day, the Syrian army and allied Iranian-backed forces reached the outskirts of Deir al-Zour, and lifted the siege of a government-held enclave. The progressing forces broke the siege from the western part of the city through the Brigade 137, where a garrison of forces had been besieged by IS for three years. About 93,000 civilians were surrounded by IS in the enclave of government loyalists in the city, half of which is controlled by IS. Breaking the siege is the goal of an operation launched in May in the Syrian desert in the eastern countryside of Homs Province in central Syria, coupled with another offensive by the army in the southern countryside of Raqqa Province in northern Syria. The troops advancing from southern Raqqa were the ones breaking the siege of the Brigade 137, while a second group advancing from the city of al-Sukhnah in eastern Homs has yet to arrive. The Syrian forces with the help of 5,000 troops besieged in the base will now move to liberate the vicinity of the Deir al-Zour airbase from IS, before pressing forward to liberate the rest of the city from the terror-designated group. The state TV aired a video showing the united Syrian soldiers in the base shouting in support of Syria and President Bashar al-Assad with a Syrian flag raised in the area. | 
