By Emre Gurkan Abay

MOSCOW (AA) – Russian airstrikes destroyed a column of Daesh vehicles and fighters heading to Deir ez-Zour in eastern Syria, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday.

More than 200 terrorists and 20 vehicles equipped with heavy-caliber weapons and mortars were wiped out, the ministry said.

Militants are heading for the city on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River as they lose territory in Homs province and Raqqah, their stronghold to the northwest, comes under increased attack.

The statement did not say when or where the air attack took place.

It said the loss of Deir ez-Zour would be a “strategic defeat” for Daesh in Syria.

Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said last week that the city was the “perhaps the main point at the Euphrates, which will in many ways indicate the end of the fight against” Daesh, the official TASS news agency reported.

[Photo: Russian airforce bombing west of Aleppo on 6 October 2015. Photographer: Abdulfetah Huseyin/AA]