Syria army, allies capture Mayadeen from IS: State media

Syrian government and allied forces have taken the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, in Deir Ezzor province, from Islamic State, a Syrian military source said on Saturday.

The source said the militants had suffered a "collapse" in their ranks. Mayadeen lies south of Deir Ezzor city, where Syrian and allied forces are trying to oust the militants from a small pocket they still control.

Two separate offensives targeting IS are underway in the eastern oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor, one by Russia-backed government forces and the other by US-backed Kurdish-Arab fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources inside war-torn Syria, said government forces had retaken four neighbourhoods in Mayadeen.

The state news agency SANA confirmed that government forces had re-entered Mayadeen.

Last week, IS succeeded in expelling Syrian forces from Mayadeen two days after they entered the town.

A Syrian army source had recently described Mayadeen as the "military capital" of the militant organisation in Deir Ezzor.