The Syrian regime military
has broken a siege of the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, surrounded for
years by so-called Islamic State, state media say.
The
official Sana news agency reported that troops and allied militiamen
had joined up with forces at the Brigade 137 base on the city's
outskirts.
An estimated 93,000 civilians have been trapped in an enclave on the western bank of the River Euphrates since 2015.
They have depended on military relief flights and air drops of aid by the UN.
Deir al-Zour's surrounding province is the last major IS stronghold in Syria.
Raqqa,
the de facto capital of the "caliphate" proclaimed by the jihadist
group three years ago, is under siege by a US-backed alliance of Kurdish
and Arab fighters.
And
in neighbouring Iraq, government forces have recently driven IS
militants from the cities of Mosul and Tal Afar, leaving them with only
two footholds in the country.
A
Sana reporter said army units had reached Brigade 137 after advancing
from the west and south-west with the support of the Syrian and Russian
air forces.
The
troops had engaged in fierce clashes with militants surrounding the
base, large numbers of whom eventually abandoned their positions and
fled without their weapons and ammunition, the reporter added.
Air strikes were also said to have destroyed IS vehicles and fortifications in surrounding villages.
Later,
Sana reported that residents of Deir al-Zour had taken to the streets
to celebrate the army's victory and the end of the siege.
The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group,
confirmed that advancing troops and those defending the city had met.
But
it also noted that a separate government-controlled area to the
south-east that includes three city districts and military airport was
still surrounded by jihadists.
Provincial
governor Mohammed Ibrahim Samra said troops were now moving towards the
airport, according to Reuters news agency. "The coming days will also
see the clearing of the city of Deir al-Zour," he added.
The UN had warned that conditions inside the enclave were "extremely difficult".
In
February 2016, the World Food Programme began carrying out
high-altitude air drops between to deliver food aid and stop people
dying from malnutrition. Last month, it said 300 missions had delivered
almost 6,000 tonnes of aid.