Syrian army seizes oilfield from Islamic State in east: State TV

Beirut: The Syrian army and its allies recaptured an oilfield from Islamic State near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday in further advances against the militants, state TV reported.

Government forces also seized part of a main highway running from Deir al-Zor down to the city of al-Mayadeen, to which many Islamic State militants have retreated, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

The Syrian army this week broke through Islamic State lines to reach a government-held enclave of Deir al-Zor besieged for years by the jihadists, and is fighting to reach a nearby air base which IS still surrounds.

On Saturday, the army and militias fighting alongside it seized the Teym oilfield in desert south of Deir al-Zor, state TV said. Deir al-Zor is in an oil-rich area of Syria.

To the east of Teym and south of the air base, government forces also recaptured part of the main road running from Deir al-Zor to al-Mayadeen, downstream along the Euphrates river and closer to the Iraq border, the Observatory reported.

The British-based monitoring group said that advance would block potential Islamic State reinforcements from al-Mayadeen.

The advances put yet more pressure on Islamic State`s shrinking caliphate, which once stretched across northern and eastern Syria, and northwestern Iraq.

In Syria, the group holds much of Deir al-Zor province and half the city, as well as a pocket of territory near Hama and Homs in the west of the country.