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Issam Zahreddine: The Last Man Standing in Deir ez-Zor
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General Issam Zahreddine commanded a small Syrian government force that held the city of Deir ez-Zor for over three years while ISIS besieged it from all sides. Surrounded and with no land supply lines, he and his fighters became one of the most dramatic stories of the Syrian war — a pro-Assad force that nonetheless won admiration for its survival against the odds. He was killed by a landmine weeks after ISIS's siege was broken in September 2017.
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Three Years Surrounded — Then a Landmine
Issam Zahreddine was born in 1961 in Tarba, a Druze village in the Sweida governorate of southern Syria. He pursued a military career in the Syrian Arab Army, rising to command the 104th Airborne Brigade of the Republican Guard.
When ISIS surged across Syria and Iraq in 2014 and captured Deir ez-Zor — Syria's largest city east of the Euphrates — government forces were cut off in the western part of the city and the nearby military airbase. The city was surrounded. No land routes remained open to Damascus. The only supply link was by air.
For over three years — from early 2014 to September 2017 — Zahreddine commanded the approximately 8,000 government troops and accompanying civilians trapped in the enclave. He became the face of the siege. His imposing physical appearance (a large, bald, bearded general) combined with his fierce rhetoric made him a media figure. He made videos taunting ISIS and promising survival.
The humanitarian situation inside the enclave was dire. The World Food Programme airdropped supplies but shortages were constant. Civilians were trapped with the military. ISIS made multiple attempts to overrun the enclave, with some of the bloodiest fighting of the entire Syrian war taking place in Deir ez-Zor's streets.
The siege was broken on September 5, 2017, when Syrian government forces — backed by Russian airpower and Iranian-backed militias — broke through ISIS lines and reconnected with the enclave. Zahreddine was photographed embracing the arriving troops. He told reporters he had never doubted survival.
On October 18, 2017 — just six weeks after the siege was broken, while the campaign to retake Deir ez-Zor province from ISIS was still ongoing — Zahreddine was killed when his vehicle drove over an IED (improvised explosive device) near the Saqr island area. He was 56.
His death was mourned deeply in the Druze community and among Assad supporters. He was given a state funeral. His survival of three years of siege only to die in the final campaign made his death acutely symbolic — of both the cost of the war and its random cruelty.
When ISIS surged across Syria and Iraq in 2014 and captured Deir ez-Zor — Syria's largest city east of the Euphrates — government forces were cut off in the western part of the city and the nearby military airbase. The city was surrounded. No land routes remained open to Damascus. The only supply link was by air.
For over three years — from early 2014 to September 2017 — Zahreddine commanded the approximately 8,000 government troops and accompanying civilians trapped in the enclave. He became the face of the siege. His imposing physical appearance (a large, bald, bearded general) combined with his fierce rhetoric made him a media figure. He made videos taunting ISIS and promising survival.
The humanitarian situation inside the enclave was dire. The World Food Programme airdropped supplies but shortages were constant. Civilians were trapped with the military. ISIS made multiple attempts to overrun the enclave, with some of the bloodiest fighting of the entire Syrian war taking place in Deir ez-Zor's streets.
The siege was broken on September 5, 2017, when Syrian government forces — backed by Russian airpower and Iranian-backed militias — broke through ISIS lines and reconnected with the enclave. Zahreddine was photographed embracing the arriving troops. He told reporters he had never doubted survival.
On October 18, 2017 — just six weeks after the siege was broken, while the campaign to retake Deir ez-Zor province from ISIS was still ongoing — Zahreddine was killed when his vehicle drove over an IED (improvised explosive device) near the Saqr island area. He was 56.
His death was mourned deeply in the Druze community and among Assad supporters. He was given a state funeral. His survival of three years of siege only to die in the final campaign made his death acutely symbolic — of both the cost of the war and its random cruelty.
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