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Conflict in Syria

Russian military sends food to Deir ez-Zor residents

Medical workers’ teams will visit the city soon to deliver medical care to the residents

© Vadim Grishankin/Russian Defense Ministry Press and Information Office/TASS

MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. The Russian Center for the Reconciliation of the Warring Parties is urgently sending foodstuffs and staple commodities to residents of Deir ez-Zor, which was besieged for more than three years, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"The humanitarian aid convoy dispatched by the Russian reconciliation center is carrying water purification stations, mobile diesel generators, bottled drinking water, food packages and medicines," the ministry said.

Medical workers’ teams will visit the city soon to deliver medical care to the city’s residents.

To normalize the humanitarian situation in the recaptured districts of Deir ez-Zor as soon as possible, specialists of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of the Warring Parties are evaluating the amount of humanitarian aid and the current state of the city’s life support facilities (energy and water supply systems, medical facilities, bakeries).

Vital infrastructure facilities almost completely destroyed

Terrorists from the Islamic State terror group (IS, outlawed in Russia) almost completely destroyed vital infrastructure facilities in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

"In the city districts liberated by the Syrian troops vital infrastructure facilities appear to have been almost completely destroyed by the ISIL [the former name of IS - TASS] militants," the statement reads. "All the electrical substations and water pumping stations were blown up, hospitals, schools and social facilities were destroyed. The water supply system is not operating, all the enterprises are closed. Before leaving the city, militants planted mines in residential dwellings, industrial and administrative buildings, as well as on the city’s squares," the Russian Defense Ministry added.

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On Tuesday, Syrian government troops broke through the defenses of the IS terrorists on the outskirts of Deir ez-Zor and broke the three-year siege of the city. To support the Syrian troops’ offensive, Russia’s Aerospace Force delivered a massive airstrike on the main strongholds, manpower and materiel of the Islamic State near Deir ez-Zor, while cruise missiles were launched from the Admiral Essen frigate.

Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu earlier said that the city of Deir ez-Zor was the main point in the Euphrates River area, so the breaking of its siege would to a large extent mark the end of military activities against terrorists in Syria. According to Head of the Main Operations Department at Russia’s General Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi, after the siege is broken, "the strongest ISIL units active in Syria will face a defeat." Rudskoi also pointed out that Deir ez-Zor was the place where terrorists accumulated their remaining forces, as militants from Iraq’s Mosul and most armed units from Raqqa had moved there.

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Syrian conflict

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