DEIR EZ-ZOR – The radical group of Islamic State (ISIS) pounded residential buildings in the regime-held districts of Deir ez-Zor city in eastern Syria, with several mortar shells, causing injuries among civilians, local sources reported on Wednesday.Speaking to ARA News in Deir ez-Zor, eyewitnesses said that three shells dropped on the public street in the Jura district, while another shell landed near the Sinaa school. The shelling claimed the life of a civilian and caused the injury of several others.
“The injured were transferred to a nearby clinic in the area,” a local source told ARA News on the condition of anonymity.
Also on Wednesday, the pro-regime warplanes conducted six airstrikes on ISIS-held neighborhoods in Deir ez-Zor, causing civilian casualties, according to local activists. ARA News could not verify the number of casualties.
“Pro-Assad warplanes launched at least six airstrikes on neighborhoods held by Daesh (ISIS) in central Deir ez-Zor,” a media activist and eyewitnesses reported. “Scores of civilians were hardly injured in the strikes.”
Last August, Syrian regime forces cut the bread material from people besieged by ISIS in the regime-held districts in the city of Deir ez-Zor, locals reported.
In July, ISIS militant fighters opened fire on a number of civilians in the western countryside of Deir ez-Zo, who were trying to access relief aid to the besieged neighborhoods of the city, local activists reported at the time. The sources pointed out that the volunteers were carrying food supplies in an attempt to reach western neighborhoods via the Euphrates River from Mahimidiyah village.
Islamic State extremists have been imposing blockade on the regime-held districts of Jura and al-Qusour since January of 2015. Inhabitants suffer miserable living conditions as a result of the siege imposed by ISIS, according to local relief groups.