Government Officer found dead in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor
DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria (North Press) – Residents of a village west of Deir ez-Zor Governorate, eastern Syria, found on Sunday the body of an Officer of the Syrian government forces after he, with a group of soldiers, went missing in the western Desert of Deir ez-Zor.
A military source of the government forces in the village of al-Masrab, in the western countryside of Deir ez-Zor, told North Press that the residents, while herding sheep, found the body of Lieutenant Firas al-Arabi, 39, shot in the head.
Al-Arabi along with six soldiers went missing five days earlier while combing the Desert a few days ago due to foggy weather.
Al-Arabi, who hails from the city of Jableh in the coastal city of Tartus, is an officer in Division 18 of the government forces and is responsible for the division’s checkpoints deployed across the desert.
The Syrian Desert covers nearly half of the area of Syria, and is distributed over the governorates of Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Rif Dimashq, Suwayda and Palmyra.
Iranian-backed militias and government forces control large areas of the Syrian Desert and the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, which constitutes a source of concern as it witnesses intensive operations by the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) sleeper cells.
Recently, attacks and killings against the government forces have increased in Deir ez-Zor, despite intensifying combing operations by the government forces.