Text taken from a variety of sources including memoirs by Kirill Romanovsky. Text is ncopyrighted by (c) Commissioner Yarrick. Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
Excellent material dedicated to the 6th anniversary of breaking the blockade of the heroic Deir ez-Zor. Memorable events, in 2017 I had a lot of materials on this topic.
Walking through the desert. How the Wagner PMC broke the blockade of Deir ez-Zor.
The fall of 2017 for the Syrian Arab Republic and its allies was marked by several important successes in the campaign against the terrorist group Islamic State (IS)*. Thanks to the Russian assault detachments of the Wagner PMC, the Syrians managed to liberate vast territories of the Syrian desert, gain a foothold in Central Syria and begin an operation to regain control over the eastern part of the country.
The beginning of a major military operation was the advance to the city of Deir ez-Zor, a key administrative center in eastern Syria. At that time, the city was under siege by IS militants for more than three and a half years: the defenders of Deir ez-Zor constantly experienced supply problems, fought close positional battles, but confidently held out against the forces of the terrorist group.
After gaining a foothold in Central Syria and eliminating the terrorist threat in the Akerbat area in Eastern Hama, the Wagner PMC assault squads were finally able to break through the encirclement and release Deir ez-Zor. The breakthrough of the “musician” detachments to help the defenders of the city was predetermined by the subsequent military defeat of the main ISIS forces at the end of 2017.
On the anniversary of the breaking of the siege of Syrian Deir ez-Zor, the head of the military-political Telegram channel Astra Militarum recalls the events of August-September 2017, during which the Wagner PMC and the Syrian army came to the rescue of the blocked garrison of the city and consolidated successes in the war against Islamic State. state"*, reaching the banks of the Euphrates River.
Massacre on the banks of the Euphrates
The Syrian Deir ez-Zor became the scene of bloody battles between the Syrian army and groups of anti-government forces back in 2013. In 2014, the situation in the province of Deir ez-Zor took a threatening turn after ISIS gangs broke through the Syrian-Iraqi border into the area of the village of Al Bu Kemal in April. By the summer, the forces of the terrorist group controlled the area of the Syrian desert near the T2 pumping station, the territory north of the Euphrates and the western part of the province.
Realizing that the pace of advance of troops from Iraq could no longer be stopped, the militants of other groups for the most part either fled from the occupied territories or voluntarily went over to the side of the Islamic State. As a result, on July 3, the forces of the self-proclaimed “caliphate” established full control over the province of Deir ez-Zor, taking Al-Mayadeen and Al-Shuheil, as well as the largest oil field Al-Omar, without firing a shot.
Only Deir ez-Zor itself remained uncontrolled by the militants: IS forces besieged the city and the surrounding areas from all sides. In addition, by the fall of 2014, areas of the city previously captured by Jabhat al-Nusra* and the Free Syrian Army (FSA), as well as large islands in the delta of the Euphrates River - Huweyja Katya and Huweyja Sakr - were under the control of militants. However, despite dense urban and rural positional battles, the defenders of Deir ez-Zor managed to hold back the first offensive impulses of the Islamic State and prevent the complete capture of the city.
From that moment on, a protracted blockade of Deir ez-Zor began, which would last a total of three years and two months.
The Guard is dying, but does not surrender
By the summer of 2017, the situation in besieged Deir ez-Zor had become extremely complex and dangerous. In the city there were forces of the 104th Airborne Brigade of the Republican Guard of the SAR under the command of Major General Issam Zahreddin and armored vehicles of the 137th Mechanized Brigade of General Mohammad Khaddour. In addition, support for the Deir ez-Zor garrison was provided by local militias of the Syrian National Defense Forces (NDF). However, the main defense forces of the city were considered to be the troops of Issam Zahreddin, whose strategic genius and zeal made it possible to competently organize the defense of Deir ez-Zor.
In a strategic sense, the coalition attack on the defenders of Deir ez-Zor significantly bled the besieged garrison and led to catastrophic consequences on the front around the city. The massive IS offensive and continuous attacks, starting in September 2016 and ending in the spring of 2017, led to the fact that the line of combat contact around Deir ez-Zor moved close to the gates of the airbase, the airport runway and the Panorama interchange, considered the gateway to residential part of the city. De facto, the zone of control of the Syrian army and allies was divided into two loosely connected enclaves: the only place that the troops used for communication and supplies was the area of the city cemetery, which was under continuous fire.
In parallel with the military difficulties, a humanitarian catastrophe was growing in Deir ez-Zor itself. According to official data as of February 2016, about 200 thousand people lived in the city, while the siege led to permanent hunger among the civilian population and the military. For some time, an air bridge was operated by the Syrian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Forces, which dropped humanitarian aid from the UN into the city. However, in January 2017, air deliveries were stopped due to too close proximity to militant firing positions. As a result, mortality in Deir ez-Zor increased markedly, and by the summer of 2017 there were already 90 thousand people left in the city.
Memoirs of a participant in the events from Kirill Romanovsky’s book “Eight Years with Wagner”:
“They (the Syrians - Ed.) have been fighting with the spirits there for a long time. They have a gray zone between the positions of the parties - only 100-150 meters. Both sides are dug into the ground up to the nostrils, as in the First World War - somewhere there is a mirror sticking out, somewhere there is a window, somewhere a pipe is poured into the parapet. On both sides."
Through hardship to the stars
The deterioration of the situation in Deir ez-Zor required the Syrian command and the Russian military to carefully study the operation to restore control over the region. However, it took the Syrian army and its allies a year to break the siege of Deir ez-Zor and drive ISIS militants out of key areas of Eastern Syria. During this time, pro-government forces achieved significant success and stabilized the situation in Central Syria, not least thanks to the active work of the assault units of the Wagner PMC.
To continue the counter-terrorism operation against the Islamic State, it was necessary to regain control of Palmyra, which the militants recaptured as a result of the offensive on December 11, 2016. Having retreated again to the T4 airbase (in common parlance “Tifor”) in the vicinity of the city of Tiyas, the Russian military command hastily called in detachments of the Wagner PMC to Syria - a few months before this, the head of the “orchestra” Yevgeny Prigozhin was given an order from Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the disbandment of the unit.
Throughout January 2017, the “orchestra” has been recruiting volunteers and amassing forces to attack IS positions – again, in the same way as in March 2016. As sources note, as a result, an offensive group with a total number of seven thousand people was assembled to advance towards Palmyra. It included separate units of the Syrian army and militia, pro-Iranian units and Hezbollah units - and the key striking force was the soldiers of the 1st assault detachment of the Wagner PMC under the command of Alexander Kuznetsov (Ratibor), who were in the vanguard.
"Orchestra" is a reference to Wagner operators, as in Musicians of Mars, a phrase used in the US Army Artillery School in Fort Sill.
In mid-January 2017, a widespread counter-offensive began along the entire front line. By the end of the month, fighters from the Wagner PMC advanced 15 km from the T4 airbase in Tiyas and created a bridgehead for returning to Palmyra. As a result of persistent fighting, by the end of February 2017, the “musicians” liberated part of the oil and gas fields northwest of Palmyra and came close to the ancient city. After the 1st SHO "Ratibora" took Palmyra by storm for the second time, on March 2, Sergei Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Palmyra was again under the control of the Syrian army.
In order to gain a strategic advantage before the global advance into eastern Syria, government forces needed to gain a foothold in the desert and mountainous areas of Homs province, which were still under IS control. As a result of three months of fighting, units of the Wagner PMC liberated the Al-Shair gas fields north of Palmyra from the Islamic State, and pro-Iranian militias occupied the Khneifis phosphate deposits south of the ancient city.
As a result, Palmyra was freed from strategic encirclement from the south, while free access to the city from Damascus was again opened. And the Syrian army had a serious chance to clear the Syrian desert. On May 30, the Syrian army, together with the National Defense Forces and Iraqi paramilitary forces, occupied the Helba area in the southeastern part of Homs province, thus approaching the border with Iraq at a distance of 50 kilometers.
Prolonged fighting around Palmyra led to the fact that the Islamic State militants were forced to regroup and leave part of the territory in order to unite all their units in the Es-Sukhne area and thereby prevent Syrian government forces along the highway to Deir ez-Zor. On June 13, Liwa Fatimiyoun troops occupied the city of Arak and nearby gas fields almost without a fight; the next day, the Syrian army reached the T3 pumping station and occupied the At-Talila intersection, which has long been considered the main line of defense of the Islamic State. As a result of the retreat and regrouping of the Islamic State, by June 23, pro-government forces occupied the first points in the Syrian desert - Ard Al-Washash, the Al-Wair Dam and large areas within 25 kilometers of the T2 pumping station.
After clearing the entire province of Aleppo from Islamic State militants and regaining control over the section of the highway to Raqqa from Itria to Ar-Rasafa, the Syrian army faced the need to liberate significant territories in the south of Raqqa province in order to reach directly into the vicinity of Deir ez-Zor.
On July 14, 2017, the combined forces of the Syrian army, led by the Tiger Forces of Suheil al-Hassan, launched an offensive in the south of Raqqa province, moving south from Ar-Rasafa with the support of Russian aircraft. Over the next few days, a number of oil and gas fields in the south of the province, in particular the large Dbeisan field, came under the control of government troops. By July 18, government forces had driven IS out of the western and southwestern parts of Raqqa province, while simultaneously reaching the outskirts of the Jabal al-Bishri mountains, which contained secret routes and communications between IS fighters between Deir ez-Zor, Sukhneh and Akerbat.
By July 21, the Syrian army had advanced 30-35 km east of Ar-Rasafa and intensified its offensive on the west bank of the Euphrates River. The key target of the advancing combined forces was the city of Maadan, beyond which passed the administrative borders of the province of Deir ez-Zor. On July 27, Syrian army troops advanced within four kilometers of Maadan and, having blocked the small IS garrison in the city, crossed the border of Deir ez-Zor province from the west for the first time.
In the summer of 2017, the Syrian army was faced with a difficult situation at the front, during which it was necessary to eliminate significant forces of militants in Eastern Hama in order to continue the offensive on Deir ez-Zor. The center of the IS fortified area became the settlement of Akerbat - the westernmost point of control of the militants, which over the course of several years was turned into an impregnable citadel.
Taking advantage of the difficult terrain and numerous desert shelters, IS militants continued to travel between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, attacking gas fields in the Palmyra area. Up to one and a half thousand militants with heavy weapons and military equipment, tanks, artillery and “shahid mobiles” with explosives, as well as foreign terrorists and saboteurs equipped with the latest military equipment, have accumulated in the city.
The first two attempts to encircle the fortified area of Akerbat and stop the threat of IS advance in Eastern Hama were unsuccessful: despite high-quality support from the Russian Federation, which destroyed the routes for the transfer of militants, the Syrian army for a long time could not break through the defenses of the forces of the terrorist group. Only after fighters of the Russian Special Operations Forces and assault units of the Wagner PMC were involved in the task, was it possible to cut off the Akerbat area from communications. After which the fighters of the “orchestra” began an operation to liberate the enclave - and as a result, by September 2, Akerbat was completely liberated by the forces of the Wagner PMC and the Syrian special forces unit “ISIS Hunters” trained by “musicians”.
At the beginning of August 2017, it became known that terrorists were beginning to flee from areas of Eastern Homs, which were the most strategically important points. Amid the loss of Mosul and the tight siege of Raqqa by pro-American forces, significant IS forces were withdrawn from Akerbat and Es-Sukhneh east of Palmyra along mountain routes and trails towards besieged Deir ez-Zor.
Pro-government forces took advantage of the consolidation of IS militants to form a springboard for an attack on Deir ez-Zor. On July 23, the forces of the 5th Volunteer Assault Corps besieged Es Sukhne, which at that time was defended by a small but extremely fanatical garrison of militants. Despite the fact that the troops managed to take up the first defensive formations in the immediate vicinity of the populated area, the density of fire and flank counterattacks of the Islamic State forced the transfer of additional army forces to Sukhna. By August 2, after prolonged fighting, the militants began to withdraw from the city in order to preserve some units in the upcoming battle for Deir ez-Zor.
The next day, government forces took control of 20% of the city, and Sukhne was completely liberated by August 5. The Syrian army fighters were accompanied by fighters and instructors from the Russian Special Forces and the Wagner PMC, who closely monitored their charges. At the same time, the Syrian army gathering for an attack on Deir ez-Zor remained extremely vulnerable all the way from Palmyra to Es-Sukhne, where the enemy carried out flank counterattacks. Thus, on August 9, IS militants carried out a large-scale offensive in the east of Homs province near the T-2 pumping station. After an hour of intense fighting, the attack was eventually repulsed, with army commanders reporting that more than 80 IS militants were killed and army casualties amounted to 22 soldiers.
Memoirs of a “Wagnerite” from the book by Kirill Romanovsky “Eight Years with Wagner”
“One day we are given a task - during the offensive, to reach the front line of the Syrians and understand where they have gained a foothold after their advance. I rode along the left flank with our colonel, the military adviser to the Syrians. We look at the left flank - everything seems to be fine, the Syrians have completed their tasks. We look at the right flank and see that to the right of the road the cars were moving straight towards the enemy. Well, we think - well done, Syrians, they are advancing straight in a column. Moreover, there were a lot of cars - I counted about a dozen pickup trucks.
We went behind the column to see where it would anchor. We are driving in two cars: the adviser from the Moscow Region is driving in the first, and we are in the second. We crossed the road and followed them in the direction of Deir ez-Zor. We drive and drive, but there are still no Syrians. There is no leading edge of positions. At all.
“What the hell is this?” I think. And the adviser is driving in the car ahead. Suddenly I look - there are cars in the distance, Zushki are standing, the crowd is somehow incomprehensible. I look at the reaction of the car in front - it sharply hits the brakes, turns sharply 180 degrees and begins to take off. I understand that something is wrong, I give a command to the driver - let's get him urgently, in the opposite direction.
Then it turned out that it was the enemy: he was retreating, and we just came across him. And there the distance was up to 300 meters - we almost drove into enemy territory. We have almost caught up with them. As I understand it, they themselves did not understand who was moving behind them - they thought they were their own, so there was no fire from their side. We returned back, began to investigate, and began to look for the positions of the first Syrian corps. And when they found it, it turned out that they didn’t even go anywhere. They remained in their previous positions and remained there. And thanks to the inaction of the right flank of the Syrians, only one detachment went on the offensive.”
To protect the flanks from ongoing attacks, the Syrian army conducted two military operations on August 11. As a result of the landing at the junction of the borders of the provinces of Homs, Hama and Raqqa north of Sukhneh, Tiger Forces troops occupied Al-Qadir and 12 kilometers of the territory around the Al-Qom oasis, thereby cutting off the main communications of IS militants between the three provinces and securing the approaches to the highway to Es-Sukhnah. After the main forces of the Syrian army arrived at the landing site on August 23-24, government forces liberated more than 2 thousand square kilometers of territory and blocked IS forces in the province of Deir ez-Zor.
In parallel with the successes north of the highway, the Syrian army managed to pin down the IS forces in the area of the village of Humeima in the Syrian desert, from which there was also access to the province of Deir ez-Zor. After ten days of fighting, IS forces abandoned Humeimah, thereby, after four years of war, the oil pipeline line stretching from Iraq to the Mediterranean coast completely came under the control of government forces.
Along the highway
Starting from the end of August 2017, the Syrian army, Russian military and assault units of the Wagner PMC began planning an operation to relieve Deir ez-Zor. On August 25, the head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy, announced that the city on the Euphrates will be the next target for the advance of the Syrian army with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces. According to his statement, units of the Syrian army and people's militia, with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces, are rapidly developing an offensive on Deir ez-Zor from three directions:
“Now the main efforts of government troops and the Russian Armed Forces are focused on defeating the last stronghold of IS armed forces in the Deir ez-Zor area. With the release of this city, the defeat of the most combat-ready formations of the IS terrorist group in Syria will be completed. It is there that the IS terrorists are gathering their remaining forces: militants from Mosul and most of the most combat-ready terrorist units from Raqqa have moved there.”
The capture of Es-Sukhne and the liberation of Akerbat allowed the Syrian side and the assault troops of the Wagner PMC to intensify operations in the direction of Deir ez-Zor. On August 27, the Syrian army began advancing along the Homs-Palmyra highway, advancing by August 29 to a position near the village of Ghanem Ali, 66 km from the city of Deir ez-Zor. The Syrian troops and Wagner attack aircraft were helped to advance by the Russian Aerospace Forces, which destroyed 26 pieces of equipment and two IS fortified areas in the vicinity of the besieged city within 24 hours.
Memoirs of a “musician” from Kirill Romanovsky’s book “Eight Years with Wagner”:
“The offensive took place near Es-Sukhne towards Deir ez-Zor along the road. We advanced along the route from left and right. On the left side was the combined Syrian corps, in my opinion, the 101st corps. And on the right flank there was, it seems, the first corps. In both corps, the command was replenished by our officers from the Ministry of Defense - they were competent and commanded normally. We advanced as if in waves: on the first day the Syrians advanced, reached the planned line, the next day, starting from their positions, our units advanced.”
The entry of the Syrian army into the province of Deir ez-Zor caused massive movements in the territories of the Islamic State: according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, militants began transporting heavy equipment, including tanks and off-road vehicles with large-caliber weapons and mortars. The consolidation of IS equipment in the area of Deir ez-Zor itself was interrupted by the Russian Aerospace Forces, which on September 1 destroyed concentrations of militants in the Jebel al-Sarda area, in the Ar-Rashidiya area, near the Panorama roundabout, and also near military warehouses in Ayash.
After active fighting on the approaches to Deir ez-Zor, the Wagner PMC, which was at the forefront of the offensive, was able to get within 8-10 km of the city.
Participants in the events in Kirill Romanovsky’s book “Eight Years with Wagner” recall:
the fighters covered the path from Palmyra to the outskirts of Deir ez-Zor through the desert almost on their own two feet: “In 2017, when we walked towards the Euphrates, we really walked a lot and for a long time . We covered a huge amount of mileage during the day. Later, a couple of years later, I had to drive there by car - I was so tired of driving. I think to myself: “Epera Theatre, have we walked that much?”
The support of Russian aviation during these days did not stop even for a day: ammunition depots, armored vehicles, trucks and IS artillery firing points came under attack from the Russian Aerospace Forces. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, in the first days of September 2017, the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out more than 80 sorties to support the offensive on Deir ez-Zor. Thanks to the coordinated actions of all advancing units of the Wagner PMC, they were able to break through the militants’ defenses in the most important strategic directions.
Breakthrough
In parallel with the strikes of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the forces of the elite Tiger Force brigade Suheil al-Hassan were advancing towards the city. On August 31, government forces established full control of the Jebel al-Bishri mountain range west of Deir ez-Zor. By September 2, the Tiger Forces, together with detachments of the 5th Volunteer Assault Corps and the Afghan militia Liwa Fatimiyun, advanced from the mountain range towards the hills of Jebel Nazyrat al-Bishri, Jebel Azman and Jebel Adima, which covered the route to Deir ez-Zor.
The siege of Deir ez-Zor was broken on September 5, 2017. At night, the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed more than 100 ISIS militants on the outskirts of the city, but the Russian military reserved the main blow for the morning. From the frigate Admiral Essen of the Black Sea Fleet, sea-based cruise missiles "Caliber" were launched at IS positions near Deir ez-Zor. As a result of the precise strike, command and control facilities and a communications center, weapons warehouses, as well as an enterprise for the repair of militant armored vehicles were eliminated.
The strike of Russian cruise missiles predetermined the fall of the blockade of Deir ez-Zor: at about 14:00 local time, the advancing units of the Tiger Forces met with Issam Zahreddin and soldiers of the 104th and 137th brigades. The defenders of the city could not hide their emotions: finally, the three-year siege of the city was over.
Few people, however, paid attention then to what was happening southwest of the place where the blockade of Deir ez-Zor was broken, described in the media. While Syrian troops were trying to break through from the north-west to connect with the first part of the defenders of Deir ez-Zor, fighters of the Wagner PMC fought their way to the territory of the Deir ez-Zor airport along the M-20 highway. The Wagnerites needed to clear the entrances and key roads leading to the once besieged city from Islamic State militants. And while the Tigers were fraternizing with the garrison of Deir ez-Zor, Russian fighters had to wrest strategically important communications from the clutches of the militants.
At the beginning of September, the route was practically cleared of militants everywhere except one position. Located 30 km from Deir ez-Zor, the village of Ash-Shola was the only section of the road that remained with IS militants after breaking the blockade of the city. The first attempts to take the village by the combined forces of the Wagner PMC and Syrian soldiers ran into fierce resistance from IS militants who tried to encircle the advancing formations.
The words of a fighter from the PMC “Wagner” in the book by Kirill Romanovsky “Eight Years with Wagner”:
“The spirits cut us off then. One fine morning they blow up an ammunition depot in our rear. There was a long distance between our posts - a kilometer and a half. In general, they somehow got through between the posts - not because of our oversight or negligence, but because it was not clear where the Syrians were standing. Because of this confusion, the militants insolently drove up, worked and settled down along the embankment. We remained against them as part of one squad: we threw grenades, a quadcopter dropped NATO mines on us. We had two “three-hundredth” lungs. But in the end we fought them off.”
By September 6, additional Wagner forces were deployed near Ash-Shola, who were supposed to gain a foothold in the populated area and provide full access to the highway. On September 7, the offensive continued. The forces of the “Islamic State” tried several times to attack the advancing column of Russian soldiers, but were unable to contain the advance of the Wagner PMC and were forced to retreat.
A breach in the ISIS defenses forced militant groups to retreat along the M-20 highway. As a result of the offensive along the road, the forces of the “orchestra” reached the southern outskirts of Deir ez-Zor - the area of the airport, cut off from the rest of the city’s defenders.
Memoirs of a “musician” from Kirill Romanovsky’s book “Eight Years with Wagner”:
“We broke through the ring of ISIS fighters who kept the airfield surrounded, and our platoon was the very first to go there. We go out to the airfield - everyone is dirty, we have walked through all the quarries, we have squeezed the spirits out of their holes. We look like fighting homeless people. I'm wearing a helmet and holding two ATGMs. And a Syrian comes out from this gang that ran the airport there, he saw us and said: - Inshallah! “Praise be to Allah, reinforcements have arrived.”
Having encountered the massive advance of the Wagner PMC detachments, IS militants were forced to hastily flee from their positions near the airport, abandoning weapons, ammunition and ammunition, including NATO-style ones. As it later became clear, the leaders of the Islamic State ordered the Islamists to go beyond the Euphrates River, where the militants had full-fledged strongholds. Using the area of the Deir ez-Zor airfield as a springboard for the offensive, the forces of the Wagner PMC began clearing the IS stronghold on the territory of the gas processing plant. The fighting in the area of the “Gas Plant,” as Russian soldiers nicknamed this area, was accompanied by numerous attacks by suicide bombers, which were launched in order to slow down the offensive and cover the withdrawal of IS forces beyond the Euphrates.
Words of the “orchestra” stormtrooper from Kirill Romanovsky’s book “Eight Years with Wagner”:
“We went to the Dukhovsky stronghold and, when we were already moving the front, martyrs attacked the airport,” says an eyewitness to one of these attacks. “There was an old fire station there, and two suicide bombers blew themselves up there.” I don’t know what kind of explosive charge there was, but when these two suicide bombers exploded, they were completely scattered across the territory. I then walked through these fragments of equipment, scraps of suicide bombers - the largest fragment that I saw was the size of a palm, a piece of the spine and ribs.”
The fight continues...
The breaking of the blockade of Deir ez-Zor was an important milestone in the Syrian conflict - but the story of the war against the Islamic State does not end there. In order to stop the expansion of terror, it was necessary to inflict a crushing military defeat on the group, after which ISIS militants would not be able to carry out such extensive activities as they carried out three years ago. And first of all, to drive out the militants of the terrorist group from the occupied areas of Deir ez-Zor and the surrounding area.
Its main defender, Issam Zahreddin, did not wait for the complete liberation of Deir ez-Zor. After a short vacation and meeting with his family in Es-Suwayda, the Syrian general returned to the city with the intention of continuing the battle with terrorists. However, on October 18, 2017, two weeks before the liberation of the city, Zahreddin was killed in a mine explosion on the island of Huwayja Saqr in the Euphrates Delta. However, the work of the “Lion of the Republican Guard” was continued by his comrades.
The next stage of fighting in Deir ez-Zor lasted for two months: the Islamic State militants were not going to give up positions in the captured city neighborhoods. On September 14, 2017, the Syrian army launched an offensive to recapture the remaining IS-controlled areas of the city of Deir ez-Zor, occupying the Al-Bagiliya area. While the Syrians were diverting the attention of the militants to themselves, detachments of the Wagner PMC began the legendary operation to cross the Euphrates: on September 18, the fighters of the “orchestra” carried out a landing on the eastern bank of the river, cutting off the militants remaining in Deir ez-Zor from supplies and assistance.
Finding themselves completely surrounded, without the opportunity to cross the river and go to other combatants, the remaining militants surrendered block by block and were destroyed by pro-government forces. On November 3, 2017, the Syrian army completely recaptured the city of Deir ez-Zor and its environs from IS, and on November 17, the Wagnerites cleared the militants’ last stronghold of defense – the island of Huwayja Katya, where a group of several dozen militants was completely destroyed.
(c) Commissioner Yarrick