A military meeting was held in the capital Damascus to discuss a possible operation to lift of the ISIS siege of Deir Ezzor through the capture of the strategic Palmyra-Deir Ezzor highway.
Representatives of the Russian military, high-ranking commanders of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), leaders of the newly-formed 5th Storming Corps, heads of Deir Ezzor tribes (like Fares Dagheem, Asa’ad al-Issa, Daham al-Jarad, and Mohammad Saleh) were involved.
The discussion focused on the possibility of launching a military operation to recapture the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor highway and to lift the siege from the embattled city.
It was suggested to launch a volunteer campaign to recruit the sons of Deir Ezzor from camps for internally displaced persons, tribal youth, and retired veterans to the 5th Storming Corps and pro-government tribal forces deployed in Palmyra and its countryside.
It is expected that Russia will support this campaign financially. Moscow has been already dooing this for some time providing a variety of weapons and equipment including the T-62m tanks to local tribal forces involved into the battle against ISIS.