Protests against the Syrian government has been on-going in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor since March 2011, as part of the wider Syrian revolution, but large-scale clashes and attack and retreat battles have been taking place between rebels and regime forces on the outskirts of the Deir al-Zor military airport, south east of the city, for the past nine months, as the two sides exchange control of land only a few hundred meters from the airport’s walls.
The two parties believe that taking control of the airport is a strategic option that will tip the battle in favor of defeating the other party. Therefore, both sides are exerting great efforts in the battle.
According to opposition activists, as well as videos uploaded by rebel factions on YouTube during the war, these battles have cost the two parties hundreds of deaths, as rebels have destroyed a number of aircraft, which were either downed in flight or destroyed while parked at the airport.
Activists have also witnessed a number of regime warplanes shot down by rebels in the province, in addition to a number of destroyed planes on airport runways by mortar fire.
Based on other activists’ videos during the long war on the edge of the airport, the rebels have destroyed or disabled a large number of regime tanks and armored vehicles.
According to former soldiers who served in Deir al-Zor military airport, that airport was also used as a civilian airport and, before the revolution, was a neglected military airport that only housed old aircraft. But after the revolution, it became an important military site and the launch point for military operations, both in terms of shelling and transporting troops and supplies.
That transformation is supported by video evidence, which shows the intensity of the bombing campaigns being launched from the airport toward the liberated parts of the city and the surrounding villages. The transformation is also supported by surveillance and monitoring operations by rebels on the movements of the regime forces inside the airport.
According to activists working with the rebels’ monitoring department, and eavesdrops on regime forces’ communications that take place in the front fighting lines at the airport, there were reports at the beginning of March that the regime was bringing in soldiers from Iraqi Shiite militias to fight on its side in the airport battle.
However, military sources on the ground and fighters on the frontlines in the city say that these members were already fighting inside the city. They add that the regime summoned part of them to the airport battle because of its large losses and the counter-attack operations that it had started.
On March 4, the military operations resulted in regime forces advancing in the village of Hawayij al-Muraia, which is adjacent to the airport. That advance was shown on the regime’s official TV and pro-regime TV channels by means of a video shot inside the village, in addition to rebel sources that returned from the battle.
Despite the build-up of forces, the regime failed to advance any further in this battle after rebels brought in reinforcements and attacked sensitive centres for the regime at Tallat al-Makaber, which is adjacent to the airport.
Opposition brigades that are fighting in the battle have brought reinforcements from Jabhat al-Asala wal Tanmiya, Ahl al-Athar, Liwa’ Jaafar al-Tayyar, Jaish al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham, Liwa’ Mo’ta, and many other brigades that are smaller and less widespread.
The regime tried to benefit from its slight advancement at the media level, and announced on pro-regime private satellite channels the return of civil aviation traffic at Deir ez-Zour airport. But the reality on the ground was quite the opposite, as no civilian aircraft could land, and even if it did, what road would passengers take in order to reach the neighbourhoods controlled by the regime or the rebels?
Regime forces seek to hold the airport to ensure the delivery of supplies, which cannot come overland to its troops. Activists say that no land convoys, whether carrying armored vehicles or military supplies, have reached regime centres in the province for over a year because rebels have several checkpoints on the Deir al-Zor – Tadmor highway and those checkpoints search the cars and trucks that pass by.
The regime’s continued control of the airport infers its ability to prevent rebels from making advancements toward the security square, located in the south of the city. Should this square be seized by rebels, it would grant their full control of the province, as the airport is a strong and integrated line of defence with the security square, which is located a few kilometres behind it.
Moreover, the airport is considered to be an advanced point to bomb eastern province villages and most of its cities with rocket launchers and short-range surface to surface missiles.
In the event the rebels controlled the airport, this would result in the collapse of regime forces in the province within days or weeks, thereby allowing rebels to move their forces to the city of Tadmur, 280 km east of Damascus, and then toward Homs or Damascus, which means a radical change in favour of the rebels in the war raging in those areas.
Rebels are besieging the airport from the eastern side and some parts of the southern side, while regime forces enjoy freedom of land movement from the airport toward Tallat al-Makaber, located to its west, and then to its security square. This road secures the transfer of supplies, ammunition and men. These would be subsequently transported to the battle lines within the city, knowing that they arrive via military planes that land on a daily basis after dark. The rebels frequently target these planes with mortar fire as they land, and this has led to the destruction of a number of them, including all the equipment and fighters that they contained.
Nearly two years into the fighting, Deir al-Zor’s rebels are now in control of most of the governorate, which is located in the east of the country, 500 km east of the capital Damascus, as they have pushed back the regime forces from the entire rural area and two-thirds of the city of Deir ez-Zour, which is in the centre of the province. They also control large parts of the Deir al-Zor–Damascus road.
For its part, the regime controls three neighbourhoods within the city and its two entrances toward al-Raqqa, to the west, and Damascus, to the south, where its security square is located, in addition to Tallat al-Makaber and the military airport.
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