US-backed Syrian Kurds seize eastern city of Deir el-Zor, sources say

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By Orhan Qereman

HASAKEH, Syria (Reuters) – A U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters has seized the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zor, three Syrian sources told Reuters on Friday, the third city to fall out of President Bashar al-Assad’s control in a week.

Two security sources based in eastern Syria said the alliance, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, had taken full control of Deir el-Zor by Friday afternoon.

Omar Abu Layla, an activist from the media platform Deir Ezzor 24 with contacts in the city, told Reuters that Syrian government forces and Iran-backed Iraqi fighters had pulled out of Deir el-Zor before the SDF swept in.

An Iraqi security source said the SDF were also advancing in the direction of the Syrian town of Albukamal, which sits on the border with Iraq, and could take it within the next 24 hours.

The SDF advance came as Syrian rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, bore down on the central Syrian city of Homs on Friday.

The rebels had already taken the northern city of Aleppo last week and the city of Hama earlier this week, dealing the biggest blows to Assad in years.

(Reporting by Orhan Qereman in Hasakeh, Syria, and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; editing by Michael Georgy and Mark Heinrich)