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Reports: Syria's Deir al-Zor Air Base Working Again

by Reuters

   BEIRUT --

   The Deir al-Zor military airport in eastern Syria, which the Syrian
   army recaptured this month from Islamic State, began functioning again
   on Monday for the first time in nearly a year, Syrian state media and a
   monitoring group said.

   The military base is seen as a valuable asset for the Syrian army as it
   presses its campaign against Islamic State in Deir al-Zor province.

   Two planes landed and took off from the base on Monday, state TV
   reported -- the first such activity there since September 2016, the
   Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

   Monday's flights carried aid to Deir al-Zor, Syrian state media and the
   British-based Observatory said.

   On Sunday, the United Nations said it had halted costly air drops to
   the city as a land corridor opened.

   The U.N. has estimated that some 93,000 people were living in
   "extremely difficult" conditions in government-held parts of Deir
   al-Zor during the Islamic State siege and were supplied by air drops to
   the base.

   Syrian government forces and their allies broke Islamic State's
   three-year siege of Deir al-Zor earlier this month, reaching the
   government-held enclave in the city and the adjacent air base.

   The Syrian army and U.S.-backed militias are fighting separate
   offensives against Islamic State in the province, the jihadist group's
   last major stronghold in Syria.