Tabnak – It’s been quite a while that the Syrian conflict has become not only a battle against the terrorists, but also a clash on who would gain the most part of territories liberated from ISIS grip. Now it seems that at least part of the second battle has resulted in a great achievement for the US-backed forces.
Aljazeera reports that US-backed Syrian fighters captured a major gas field from ISIS terrorist group in an eastern province that borders Iraq as they race with government forces to capture the energy-rich region, a senior official with the group said.
Nasser Haj Mansour of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the Conoco gas field and plant came under full control of the group on Saturday morning after days of fighting with the armed group.
He added that SDF, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters, also captured the nearby al-Izba gas field. The facility had the largest capacity of any in Syria before the conflict erupted in 2011: 13 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, according to The Syria Report, an economic digest.
In Deir ez-Zor, ISIS is battling two separate offensives, one launched by the SDF and the other by the Syrian army and its allies. Syrian troops supported by popular units of militias have also crossed to the eastern side of the river, increasing their presence in an area where US-backed militias have also advanced.
According to Reuters, the Syrian army and its allies were within four kilometers (2.5 miles) of the SDF positions.
Meanwhile, Russia said on Thursday it had warned the United States it would target areas in Syria where US special forces and U.S.-backed militia were operating if its own forces came under fire from them, something it said had already happened twice.
The Russian warning underscored growing tensions over Syria between Moscow and Washington. While both oppose ISIS, they are engaged, via proxies, in a race for strategic influence and potential resources in the form of oilfields in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province.
Elsewhere in Syria, it is reported that Turkey has stepped up the deployment of troops to a northern Syrian province dominated by a terrorist group, deepening both its military involvement in the conflict and its co-operation with Russia, according to two Turkish officials.
Troops with artillery and earthmoving equipment used to set up temporary bases started crossing into a buffer zone on the border between Turkey and Syria this week, according to one official.
The move is part of Ankara’s efforts to enforce a de-escalation agreement in Idlib, a rebel-held northern province controlled by an al-Qaeda offshoot, that was part of a deal brokered between Turkey, Russia and Iran.
In the latest round of the Astana talks last week, the three sides agreed on the details of a fourth de-escalation zone in Syria’s Idlib Province. In a joint statement, the trio said they had agreed "to allocate” their forces to patrol the zone covering Idlib and parts of the neighboring provinces of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo regions.
The de-escalation zones are aimed at separating extremist groups, including ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra from other militants. The northwestern province of Idlib borders Turkey and is largely under the control of al-Nusra Front terrorists.
