Syrian army, allies race to relieve Deir al-Zor

Syria's army and its allies raced towards their enclave in Deir al-Zor after a rapid advance on Sunday, seeking to relieve it after years of Islamic State siege as jihadist defenses suddenly collapsed.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has focused this year on the campaign in Syria's desert, striking eastwards in a multi-pronged assault to restore Deir al-Zor, where Islamic State has held half the city and all the land around since 2014.A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human