IS loses Strongholds in Syria and Iran

So-called Islamic State (IS) has lost control of two of its last remaining strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

Early on Friday Syria’s army announced it had taken Deir al-Zour. Later in the day the Iraqi prime minister said al-Qaim, across the border, had been recaptured by government forces.

The town was taken “in record time”, PM Haider al-Abadi said.

Iraqi forces say they have also seized the last border post between Iraq and Syria that was held by IS.

Last month, a US-backed Syrian alliance took control of Raqqa in Syria, the former capital of Islamic State’s self-styled “caliphate”.

In July, Mosul – Iraq’s second-largest city – was taken from IS after months of fighting.

IS had held most of Deir al-Zour since 2014. It was important because of its proximity to the border with Iraq.

While the Syrian army said it had been re-captured, other reports said government forces and their allies were clearing the last pockets of resistance from IS in the city.

Al-Qaim was the last sizeable territory held by IS in Iraq. The operation to retake the city and the surrounding area was launched last week.

Soldiers, police, Sunni tribesmen and mostly Shia paramilitary fighters, some backed by Iran, took part in the assault.

IS had designated the area on both sides of the border as its “Euphrates Province” and used it to transfer fighters, weapons and goods between Iraq and Syria.

The cross-border province was also a symbol of the jihadists’ intention to eradicate all the region’s frontiers and lay to rest the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement, an emblem of the colonial division of the area resented by many Arabs.

Some 350,000 civilians in Syria’s Deir al-Zour province have been forced to flee their homes during weeks of fighting.