Deir Ezzor: At least 14 fleeing people killed in Russian strikes on their rafts

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 14 fleeing people have been killed late on Thursday in renewed Russian airstrikes on eastern Deir Ezzor province, topping death toll of strikes on displaced people to 62 in 48 hours, local media group said.

Furat Post news site said the strikes had targeted civilians were trying to cross the Euphrates River aboard rafts from Mahkan village near Mayadin city, escaping from areas where Russian-backed regime forces are battling the Islamic State group.

For over a week, the Russian, warplanes have conducted more than 100 raids on eastern Deir Ezzor province, killing more than 80 people.

Last month, the regime army broke a years-long IS siege of government enclaves in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.

The major offensive on ISIS territories in eastern Syria has left more than 3000 people killed including 955 civilians since September, the deadliest month of the conflict this year, according to the Observatory.

The 955 civilians killed in September included 207 children, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria for its information.

Meanwhile, the Syrian regime army and its allies have advanced to within 10 km of Mayadin, a military media unit run by Hezbollah said Friday, bringing them close to a city seen as the current main base of ISIS.

They have won control of positions and heights parallel to the main road linking Deir Ezzor and Mayadin, located on the Euphrates in eastern Syria, the media unit said.

A war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Thursday the army was only 6 km from Mayadin.

ISIS has staged fierce counter attacks in central Syria in recent days, testing the army's control of an area seized in a months-long eastward offensive.

Backed by Russian air power, the army has continued its advance towards Mayadin from Deir Ezzor along the Euphrates valley.

Daesh has lost swathes of territory to the Syrian government and to U.S.-backed Syrian militias that are waging separate campaigns against the extremist group's last major strongholds in Deir Ezzor province.