(CNN)-The
city of Deir Ezzor in northern Syria has seen more than its share of
conflict and suffering since the Syrian insurgency began. But the last
few days have seen unprecedented horror, including suicide bombings,
mass abductions and arbitrary killings, according to human rights
activists.
The Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights reported Sunday that at least 400 civilians --
including families of pro-regime fighters -- had been abducted by ISIS
during the latest fighting and taken to the surrounding countryside. The
Observatory said it was feared they had been executed. Syria's official
news agency SANA provided similar figures, claiming that ISIS had
"committed a massacre in al-Bagaliyeh," a village to the north of the
city, killing "around 300 civilians, most of them women, children, and
elderly people."
On Monday, SANA reported, Syria's Foreign
Ministry delivered letters to United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon and the U.N. Security Council, accusing ISIS fighters of
"breaking into houses and homes and murdering, slaughtering, and
shooting innocent civilians" and abducting others.
There
is no way to independently verify the reports by the Observatory and
SANA; other opposition outlets have put the number of casualties lower.
Reports: ISIS kills soldiers
The
Observatory also reported Saturday that ISIS had killed or executed
some 50 soldiers and 85 civilians during its offensive against
al-Bagaliyeh. ISIS deployed several suicide bombers in the attacks, in
which regime positions at a hotel on the banks of the Euphrates -- the
Furat Cham Palace -- were overrun.
The
ISIS-affiliated news agency Aamaq said Sunday that 167 regime fighters
had been killed and many more wounded. A video released by ISIS Sunday
purported to show heavy artillery and tanks being used as well as
abandoned regime positions.
The
Observatory said that regime forces were now trying to reinforce their
defenses with additional troops. And the regime-appointed governor of
Deir Ezzor province, Mohammad Qaddur Ajnyyja, is reported to have told
the Russian news outlet Sputnik that the Syrian army had retaken
al-Bagaliyeh. There is no way to confirm his claim.
Fighting between government and ISIS forces continued Monday, the Observatory reported.
Most
of the city has been controlled by ISIS for well over a year, but some
neighborhoods and the military airport to the south have remained in the
hands of the regime. Fighting in and around Deir Ezzor has
become more intense since last October, when ISIS seized a number of
checkpoints close to that airport. Inside the city, ISIS has been
chipping away at the Syrian regime's remaining positions, tunneling
under them and attacking checkpoints with suicide bombs.
In
recent weeks, ISIS has stepped up offensives against several of these
areas. And in the last few days it has overrun several neighborhoods,
capturing and killing dozens of Syrian soldiers but also seizing many
civilians, according to reports from activists.
Strategic city
Deir Ezzor
is a critical junction for the group, with roads east and south toward
Iraq and west to areas it controls in Homs province, including Palmyra.
It is also surrounded by some of ISIS' most valuable oil fields, which
have been intensively targeted by both U.S. and Russian air power in
recent months. According to ISIS videos, foreign fighters have had a
prominent presence in the city.
As ISIS
has gone on the offensive, Russia has stepped up its support for the
regime in and around the city. Russian cargo planes dropped humanitarian
aid to besieged areas controlled by the regime last week, while
airstrikes pounded ISIS positions. In its latest communiqué, ISIS
claimed the Russians had launched 150 airstrikes on the area in 48
hours.
As the situation has worsened,
some civilians have managed to escape the city, which had nearly 1.5
million inhabitants before the Syrian conflict began. One family told
CNN that an elderly relative had been evacuated from the city to
Damascus for $5,000 when his medical condition worsened. But he died a
week later.
Neighborhoods where the
regime is holding out have been under siege by ISIS for a year, with
medical supplies and food scarce and generators the only source of
electricity. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported
massive price inflation, as products had to be smuggled across the
Euphrates River.
Neither the regime
nor ISIS has allowed civilians to move between the rival areas, and the
Observatory reported that dozens of young men in regime-held districts
joined militias because they were desperate for income.
Neither
side can afford to let the other take complete control of Deir Ezzor
because of its strategic position and its proximity to Syria's main oil
fields.
(via edition cnn)
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