BEIRUT: Russian air strikes killed 21 people in a village on the eastern side of the Euphrates River in east Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

The strikes in Deir Al-Zor province were to support the Kurdish-led US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting Daesh, which had attempted to launch an attack on the town earlier this week, the war monitor said.

Russia has been carrying out air strikes in the province mainly in support of the Syrian army which, alongside allied militias, has been waging its own assault against Daesh on the western side of the Euphrates.

The separate assaults have advanced along opposite sides of the river, which bisects oil-rich Deir al-Zor, mostly staying out of each other’s way.

The US-led coalition and the Russian military have held deconfliction meetings to prevent clashes between them, though the two offensives have sometimes come into conflict.

The Observatory also reported on Wednesday that the Syrian army and its allied forces had “finished the presence of Daesh” on the western bank of the river.

On Sunday, the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the SDF, announced it had fully captured Deir al-Zor’s eastern countryside from Daesh with the help of both the US-led coalition and Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said a complete victory had been achieved over Daesh on both banks of the Euphrates river in Syria, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday.

Putin was cited as saying that the military operation in the area was now completed, and that the focus would switch to a political process that would eventually involve presidential and parliamentary elections.

Putin did not specify if he was referring to the whole of Syria, or just the areas around the Euphrates valley.

Russia is likely to continue deliveries of grain crops to Syria as part of humanitarian aid supplies, irrespective of the military situation, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Wednesday.

Russia, one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, supports Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in the long-running civil war in Syria and has previously helped his government with wheat aid.

“We truly believe that the humanitarian aid is needed in Syria now, not conditional on the military situation in Syria,” Dvorkovich told reporters on a visit to London.

Dvorkovich, who is in charge of the agriculture sector in the Russian government, said he could not disclose the timing or conditions of future grain supplies from Russia, which has surplus supplies after a record grain harvest this year.

Syria was once self-sufficient in wheat production but continued fighting in the main grain-producing areas in its northeastern regions and poor rainfall reduced the country’s harvest last year.

Russia is actively looking to expand its export markets for grain after its record harvest and as prospects for next year’s crop also look good, although the government’s preliminary estimates vary.

Dvorkovich said on Wednesday that Russia’s 2018 grain crop could rise by between 1 and 2 per cent year-on-year, but Pyotr Chekmarev, head of the agriculture ministry’s crop growing department, said next year’s crop may lag this year’s record.

Agencies