Syrian regime forces said Friday they have liberated the eastern city of Deir Ezzor from ISIS, putting them in full control of the long contested city.
The forces and their allies first broke the militant group's siege of its part of the city in September and have been advancing against ISIS positions since then.
Deir Ezzor had been divided into a regime-held and an ISIS-held part for nearly three years.
The development is the latest significant defeat for ISIS as the extremist group sees its self-proclaimed "caliphate" crumble and lose almost all urban strongholds.
The Syrian regime forces and Kurdish-led forces backed by the US are now racing to take the rest of the oil-rich eastern province.
The developments in the Syrian battlefield came as Iraqi forces punched into ISIS’ last urban bastion across the border.
The simultaneous assaults on Deir Ezzor and Al-Qaim in western Iraq dealt fresh blows to to the terrorist group in its former heartland, leaving Albu Kamal, on the Syrian side of the border, the last town of note under its full control.
Also Friday, a suicide car bomb attack killed nine people in a regime-held village in Syria's Golan Heights, regime media said.
The car bomb hit the outskirts of the village of Hader, and had injured at least 23 people.
