Russia’s Defense Ministry says its aircraft have eliminated more than 200 ISIL terrorists on their way to the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor.

The operation also destroyed around 20 SUVs laden with large-caliber weapons and mortars, as well as armored vehicles, including tanks, the Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The city contains relatively large concentrations of the Takfiri group’s terrorists and is subject to offensives by both the Syrian Army and its allies, and Russian warplanes.

The Ministry said the city was now witnessing “international terrorists…trying to regroup and equip their last base in Syria.”

“The defeat of ISIL in the Deir Ezzor region will be a strategic defeat for the international terrorist group in the Syrian Arab Republic,” the statement said.

Earlier in the month, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said if the group lost the city, it would potentially mean it had suffered an ultimate defeat.

“This is perhaps the main point at the Euphrates, which will in many ways indicate the end of the fight against ISIL,” he said.

Source: Websites