Beirut, Oct 29 (AFP) Heavy clashes between Syria's armyand the Islamic State group in Deir Ezzor city have killed atleast 73 fighters in the last 24 hours, a monitor said today.
Syria's army controls most of Deir Ezzor city, capital ofDeir Ezzor province in the country's east, and made furtheradvances after responding to an IS attack that beganyesterday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for HumanRights monitor said.
The monitor said the fierce fighting Saturday killed atleast 50 IS fighters, as well as 23 Syrian soldiers and pro-regime militiamen.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said governmentforces had captured two new neighbourhoods and the municipalstadium.
"IS is now encircled in an area between the city and the(Euphrates) river," Abdel Rahman said.
IS once held large sections of Deir Ezzor city, and fornearly three years laid siege to other parts of it thatremained under government control.
In early September, advancing government forces broke thesiege, and they have been working since to expel the jihadistsfrom the rest of the city.
Abdel Rahman said the fighting that began yesterday wasthe fiercest in the city since government troops broke thesiege, adding that clashes were continuing Sunday, with regimeally Russia carrying out heavy air strikes in support of thearmy and allied fighters.
Deir Ezzor, an oil-rich province that borders Iraq, wasonce a stronghold of IS, but the jihadist group faces twinassaults there, from the regime and the US-backed Kurdish-ArabSyrian Democratic Forces.
The jihadists have already been expelled fromneighbouring Raqa province, and are now confined to just a fewpockets of territory in Deir Ezzor.
More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria sincethe conflict began in March 2011 with anti-governmentprotests. (AFP)KIS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.
