The Deir ez-Zor Military Council held a press statement in the Ebû Fas village in the Shedadê district to the south of Hesekê to announce the launch of the Cizre Storm Operation.
 
The Deir ez-Zor Military Council, SDF commanders and regional and international media organs were present in the press conference. 
 
The announcement was read by the Deir ez-Zor Military Council Commander Ehmed Ebû Xewla.
 
The Deir ez-Zor Military Council’s statement is as follows:

“In the name of the Deir ez-Zor Military Council, we herald the launch of the Cizre Storm Operation to liberate from terror the remaining area outside of Syria’s liberated Cizre and Eastern Euphrates lands and to clear the eastern rural areas of Deir ez-Zor.

At a time when ISIS defense lines are broken one by one, terror draws to a close in Raqqa, Syrian Democratic Forces create epics of heroism and sacrifice and 70% of Raqqa has been liberated, ISIS is trying to raise the low morale of their members by attacking the eastern areas of Shaddadi and Deir ez-Zor. That is why we as the Deir ez-Zor Military Council launched this operation with a spirit of responsibility to support the decisions about Raqqa and to fulfil our duty to the people of Cizre Syria and especially the people of Deir ez-Zor who have been waiting for this historic moment.
 
With this important opportunity, we are calling on our people to come together around our forces and join us to disband terror and rescue our people from this tyranny. At the same time, we are calling on our people to stay away from the centers of terror to avoid harm to their persons. We state that we will be focusing all our efforts on avoiding any harm to civilians and on transporting them to safe areas.
 
We also salute the SDF for their participation and support and we offer our thanks to the International Coalition forces for their aerial and ground support.
 
The morale of our forces is high and they are ready for success.”