An attack by Islamic State on the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor has left at least 85 civilians and 50 government troops dead, a monitoring group has said, with state media denouncing a “massacre”.
Syria’s state news agency Sana, quoting residents, said up to 300 civilians were killed in the onslaught.
If confirmed it would be one of the highest tolls for a single day in Syria’s nearly five-year war.
The bloodshed in Deir ez-Zor came as regime forces battled Isis in the northern province of Aleppo, killing at least 16 jihadis, and as airstrikes hit the Isis stronghold of Raqqa.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Isis had advanced into the northern tip of Deir ez-Zor and captured the northern suburb of Al-Baghaliyeh.
Initially, it reported that 35 Syrian soldiers and allied militiamen had been killed in the multi-front attack, which included a suicide bombing.
But as the day unfolded, the death toll rose, with the Britain-based monitor saying that civilians were among those killed in Deir ez-Zor.
It said most of the victims were killed “execution-style” in Al-Baghaliyeh. Quoting local sources, Sana denounced the mass killing.
“The [Isis] terrorists carried out a massacre in Al-Baghaliyeh, claiming the lives of around 300 civilians, most of them women, children and elderly people,” the agency said.
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