ISIL piles pressure on Assad stronghold, edging closer to Syrian airbase

Meanwhile, Russia denies it is ramping up its military presence in Syria, saying it is supplying its Middle Eastern ally with humanitarian aid and military equipment in accordance with existing contracts.

A file photo of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad meeting troops during a visit to eastern Damasus district of Jobar on December 31, 2014. Mr Al Assad's forces are facing increased pressure as ISIL presses closer to the regime-held military airbase outside Deir Ezzor. AFP Photo / Handout / SANAShow less

BEIRUT // ISIL militants edged closer to a strategic airbase in eastern Syria in heavy clashes that left 54 fighters dead, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

The extremist group, which has captured territory across Iraq and Syria, seized control late on Wednesday of an army post near the regime-held military airbase outside Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“It was one of the Islamic State’s fiercest attacks on the airport,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

He said 36 ISIL fighters and 18 regime soldiers were killed.

Also on Thursday, Russia denied it was ramping up its military presence in Syria, saying it was supplying its Middle Eastern ally with humanitarian aid and military equipment in accordance with existing contracts.

“Russian planes are sending to Syria both military equipment in accordance with current contracts and humanitarian aid,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“We have never made our military presence (in Syria) a secret,” he said, denying claims that Russia was beefing up its presence in the war-torn country.

“Russia is not taking any additional steps,” Mr Lavrov said.

However, Mr Lavrov also said Russia was ready to increase military support to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad if needed

US officials said this week that Russia was solidifying its foothold in Syria, sending ships, armoured personnel carriers and naval infantry to the country in an apparent effort to prop up the besieged regime of President Bashar Al Assad.

Mr Lavrov rebuffed suggestions that Russia’s greater involvement in Syria would throw a wrench in the plans of the US-led coalition to fight the ISIL, which has taken control over swathes of Syrian territory.

Mr Lavrov said he had discussed his country’s presence in Syria with US secretary of state John Kerry in two phone calls in the past few days.

Mr Lavrov said his US counterpart was concerned that Russia’s support for Mr Al Assad would ultimately strengthen the ISIL group because its sponsors would be forced to ramp up their military and financial support.

“Well, that logic has been turned upside down,” Mr Lavrov said.

“Once again this is an attempt to appease those who are using terrorists in their fight against unwanted regimes.”

“I believe this is a colossal mistake.”

Mr Abdel Rahman said the militants had used two suicide bombers in the assault on the airbase, one of them a child, driving cars laden with explosives.

The seizure of the army post, used by a rocket battalion, advanced ISIL to barely one kilometre from the airport.

More than 50 militants were wounded in the fighting, he added.

ISIL already controls most of Deir Ezzor province including about half of its capital, and has fought for more than a year to capture the airport and the rest of the city.

Deir Ezzor would be the second provincial capital to fall to the group after the northern city of Raqqa, which it named the capital of its self-declared “caliphate”.

The assault came as rival militants of Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate and their allies seized the last regime-held military base in Idlib province of north-west Syria on Wednesday.

Jabhat Al Nusra killed at least 56 soldiers, some execution-style, when they overran the base under the cover of a sandstorm, Mr Abdel Rahman said.

Dozens of others were either taken prisoner or went missing when Al Nusra Front and a coalition of mostly hardline groups captured the Abu Duhur military airport.

Al Nusra Front posted pictures on Twitter of about 15 men it said were Syrian soldiers now “in the hands of the mujahedeen”.

Rebels also uploaded images of helicopters and planes abandoned on the tarmac, with militants posing seated on one of the aircraft making V-for-victory signs.

The fate of other missing soldiers remained unclear, said Mr Abdel Rahman, who added that the entire northwestern province of Idlib was under the control of Al Nusra Front and other rebel groups.

Mr Al Assad’s regime effectively acknowledged the loss, with state television saying troops had left the base.

According to Mr Abdel Rahman, the regime is now left with just three airbases in the east and north of the country — Deir Ezzor, and Neirab and Kweyris in Aleppo province.

It has been at war with different rebel groups for the past four and a half years, in a conflict that has killed at least 240,000 people and forced millions more to flee abroad.

* Agence France-Presse