Commander of Syrian regime killed in Deir Ez-Zor

A still image taken from a video released on the internet by Daesh-affiliated Amaq News Agency, on April 18, 2017, purports to show the aftermath, said to be in al-Bukamal town, in Deir al-Zor province, after air strikes thought to have been directed by planes from a U.S.-led military coalition, Syria. Social Media Website via Reuters TV

The commander of the Syrian regime military campaign, Brigadier General Ghassan Saeed, is reported to have been killed on Sunday near the city of Deir Ez-Zor.

Al Arabiya reported that Saeed, who is an officer at Quiris Military Airport, died when regime forces confronted Daesh in the Syrian desert then advanced on the city of Deir Ez-Zor.

Syrian regime forces are seeking to lift the siege imposed on the city after retaking several sites previously held by Daesh west of Deir Ez-Zor after battles between the two parties.

Read: 772 civilians killed in Syria last month: UK-based NGO

Meanwhile, pro-regime media sources reported that five other officers were killed in the fighting.

In January the UN’s World Food Programme temporarily suspended air drops of vital supplies to Deir Ez-Zor due to heavy fighting. Daesh launched their fiercest attack in a year on the eastern Syrian city in an attempt to isolate it from a nearby military air base.

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.