Iranian-backed militant, civilian killed in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor
DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria (North Press) – On Tuesday, a militant of Iranian-backed militias was killed in an IED explosion, and a civilian was shot dead by government soldiers east of Deir ez-Zor, a city east Syria.
A military source of the Afghan Liwa Fatemiyoun in the town of Abu Kamal on Syrian-Iraqi border said that an IED, which was planted on a roadside in Sokariyah neighborhood west of Abu Kamal, targeted a motorcycle that was picking two militants of Liwa Fatemiyoun while on their way to purchase food products from a near market.
As a result, the militant Mouhib al-Hussein, who hails from the city of Palmyra in eastern Syria, was killed and the other militant was wounded and was transferred to a field hospital in Abu Kamal, the source, who preferred to be unnamed for security reasons, told North Press.
The wounded militant is in a critical health condition, according to a doctor in the hospital.
On the back of the attack, militants of Liwa Fatemiyoun launched raids and indiscriminately arrested the neighborhood’s residents, according to the source.
This coincided with another incident in the city of al- Quriyah, 50 kilometers east Deir ez-Zor, where a civilian was shot dead by the Syrian government forces due to an altercation that developed into an armed clash between the civilian and a government soldier.
Hamdi al-Ayed, a resident of al-Quriyah, said that his 38-year-old brother Khaled was killed by a soldier of the 4th Armored Division of the government forces.
Al-Ayed told North Press that the altercation and the incident started when the government soldier tried to subject Khaled’s wife to an inspection at a checkpoint in the city.
Consequently, the government forces arrested the soldier who shot dead the civilian amidst a state of outrage among residents of the city due to the government soldiers’ practices, according to the brother of the dead man.
The Iranian-backed militias and the government forces have been running vast swathes of the Syrian Desert as well as the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor since 2017 following the expulsion of the Islamic State Organization (ISIS).
On June 18, five militants of Iranian-backed Liwa al-Quds were killed in an armed attack against their car in the town of Sukhnah, east Syria.