(presstv/Novosti) -- In a report on Tuesday, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency cited several eyewitnesses as saying that US aircraft had recently picked up Isis commanders from the town of Mayadin, which was later liberated.
“American military aviation first made a maneuver in the area […] near a Mayadin farm. Then [it] launched an airstrike, we tried to hide and saw several US helicopters. There were foreign Isis commanders on the ground, who were waiting for them next to their headquarters… The helicopters took them outside of Mayadin,” said Muhammad Awad Hussein, a local shepherd.
He further said that he saw “US aviation… first a sound from it, then a massive strike that was followed by the US helicopters’ flight and transportation of Isis leaders after which the airstrikes ceased.”
The 79-year-old said he had served in the Syrian army and could distinguish American aircraft.
Other locals told the agency they had seen cars taking two foreign Isis commanders and their families from the town to a command post run by the Takfiri terror outfit. They said the ringleaders then boarded helicopters and headed from there to an unknown location.
Mayadin is located in Deir ezzor Province, the last area where pockets of the terrorists are still present in Syria. The town was liberated on October 14.
The Syrian army and its allies broke Isis' siege over Deir ezzor Province’s capital city of the same name in September and fully liberated it on November 3. The Takfiris had first laid the siege in 2014, when they began their terror campaign against the Arab country.
The US has long been accused of colluding with Isis to provide safe passage and logistical support to its members in conflict zones.
Last month, Russia said the US was allowing Isis to operate “under its nose” in Syria, calling on Washington to explain why the terrorists enjoyed freedom of movement in a border area where Americans have a military base.
A month earlier, reports from a group affiliated with the Syrian opposition also alleged that the US military had several times airlifted Isis Takfiri terrorists amid the Syrian army’s advances on Deir ezzor.
(Photo: taken on October 20, 2017 shows damaged buildings in the town of Mayadin in northeastern Syria. By AFP)