The Syrian opposition announced the complete liberation of the city of Deir ez-Zor

The Syrian opposition announced the complete liberation of Deir ez-Zor, the main city in the east of the country, and its military airfield.

This was reported by the Syrian Directorate of Military Operations in a telegram.

Opposition forces claim that Bashar al-Assad regime forces and Iranian militants have fled the city.

"Our fighters continue to advance in the districts and settlements of Deir ez-Zor province after taking control of the city center, as well as the western and eastern countryside," said Lt. Col. Hassan Abdul Ghani, commander of the Hayat Tahrir al-Shabab militia.

Reuters wrote that the Syrian Democratic Forces entered the city on December 6.

The city of Deir ez-Zor has changed hands several times since the start of the war in Syria in 2011 following protests against Assad.

It first fell into the hands of the rebels, and then was captured by the Islamic State in 2014. The Syrian army, with the support of pro-Iranian Iraqi groups, recaptured it in 2017 and has held it until today.

The overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria

Since November 27, active clashes between rebels and Syrian troops continued in Syria. The offensive was launched by the Syrian Revolutionary Forces in "response to months of continuous attacks on civilians" by the Assad regime in Aleppo province.

Already on December 1, the media wrote that the Assadʼs Forces lost control over Aleppo — for the first time since the beginning of the military conflict that began more than ten years ago, and later over the city of Hama — the fifth largest city in the country.

On December 8, the Syrian opposition entered the capital of Syria — Damascus — and declared that it had overthrown the regime of President Bashar Assad. Russian propagandists say that Assad fled to Moscow.

The Syrian rebels have already begun to form a transitional government — it will be headed by Muhammad Bashir, who headed the "Government of Salvation" — a political structure created in 2017 in the territories under the control of the Syrian opposition, primarily in the province of Idlib.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.