The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, on Saturday said they had seized a major natural gas field in Syria’s Deir al-Zor province from Islamic State militants in rapid advances since the start of an operation earlier this month to capture areas east of the Euphrates river.
SDF Commander Ahmed Abu Khawla told reporters that the Conoco gas field was the first of its kind taken by the, since it began an offensive earlier this month to capture the eastern province.
“This is the first gas or oil field in the campaign which we have liberated,” said Abu Khawla, whose group’s campaign is in parallel with an ongoing battle for the nearby city of Raqqa.
Photo: AFP
The Conoco field is named for the US company that discovered the gas reserves and built a processing plant there. It has been the target of US strikes and was used to supply cooking gas canisters for household use. Before the conflict it supplied gas to power stations.
In Deir al-Zor, the Islamic State is battling two separate offensives, one launched by the SDF and the other by the Syrian army and its allies.
Syrian troops supported by Iranian-backed militias have also crossed to the eastern side of the river, increasing their presence in an area where US-backed militias have also advanced.
The assaults by the Russian-backed Syrian army and the US-backed SDF have at times raised fears of clashes that could stoke tensions between the competing world powers.
Islamic State’s last major stronghold, the cities, towns and farms in the fertile strip along the Euphrates, are fast becoming the focus of Syria’s war.
Abu Khawla said the Syrian army and their allies were within 4km of the SDF positions.
Russia on Thursday said it had warned the US that it would target areas in Syria where US special forces and US-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 the Islamic State, they are engaged, via proxies, in a race for strategic influence and potential resources, such as oilfields in Deir al-Zor province.
The Syrian army’s command said in a statement that its forces captured at least 44 villages and towns since two weeks launching ago an assault into Deir al-Zor city that ended a militant siege which had lasted three years.
On Saturday the army also announced it took the town of Maadan in southern Raqqa, along the provincial boundary with Deir al-Zor province.
However, army commanders said militants in Hweija Sakr, southeast of the river, were slowing their advance, hiding amid thick vegetation, and waging hit and run ambushes, and suicide bombings.
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