On 6 September 2007, Israel attacked and destroyed a facility in the governorate that Israel claimed was a nuclear site in
Operation Outside the Box. The complex was suspected of holding nuclear materials from
North Korea. In 2011, the IAEA confirmed it had been a nuclear weapons site.
Syrian civil war In the course of
Syrian civil war, as the
Syrian Arab Army concentrated its forces on wresting back control of Aleppo, rebels slowly gained ground in the eastern tribal heartland, aiming to control the country's 200,000 barrel-a-day oil output. In August 2012, units of the
Free Syrian Army (FSA) targeted the remaining isolated outposts of the Syrian Army forces in north-east Syria, where the FSA controls all the main roads. There were said to be only three Army outposts left in Deir ez-Zor province countryside and they were under attack. On 30 November 2012, Syrian troops withdrew from
Omar oil field, one of the last regime positions east of Deir ez-Zor city near the Iraqi border. This meant that the rebels controlled the country's major fields. This happened after Syrian troops lost the
Conoco gas reserve on 27 November. The insurgents took control of an oil field for the first time on 4 November when they overran Al-Ward, the most important in the province. After also losing control of Al-Jofra field also in November, the army controlled not more than five fields, all located to the west of Deir ez-Zor city. Residents in Deir ez-Zor used crude oil for heating and agriculture for lack of fuel. On 1 January 2013, it was reported that two thirds of Deir ez-Zor Governorate was under rebel control.
Siege of Deir ez-Zor On 11 April 2014,
Islamic State (ISIS) withdrew from Abu Kamal to the T2 oil site, where a Syria-Iraq pipeline runs. On 3 July, the Syrian Organisation for Human Rights (SOHR) said that all towns and villages on the route from Abu Kamal to Al-Bab, passing through
Raqqa governorate, were now under ISIL control. Only the provincial capital Deir ez-Zor and the military airport were outside of it. The city of Deir ez-Zor was split between
al-Assad's forces and an amalgam of rebel groups. In 2014 ISIL militants massacred an estimated 900 members of the
Al-Shaitat tribe in the governorate, following resistance to the group's control of the area. In early 2016, fighters from the
Syrian Democratic Forces entered the governorate following the
Al-Shaddadi offensive. Until October 2017, ISIL controlled all of the countryside, while Syrian Government forces held out in the capital. On 14 October 2017, Russia confirmed that Al-Mayadeen was
recaptured by the Syrian army amid a major offensive. The military fully secured Deir ez-Zor city on 3 November and on 17 November 2017, ISIL surrendered the island of Hawijat Kati, bringing all areas around the city under Army control following the
two-month offensive. On 23 October 2017, the Syrian troops began an
offensive towards Abu Kamal, being ISIL's last stronghold in the governorate. The city was captured on 19 November 2017 after changing hands three times.
ISIL defeat and insurgency in Deir ez-Zor During the Deir ez-Zor campaign ISIL was militarily and territorially defeated by the
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). In 2018, ISIL started to conduct insurgent attacks against SDF forces in Deir ez-Zor.
Post-Assad era On 26 February 2025, four SDF fighters and eight civilians were killed in a Turkish airstrike on military positions of SDF. The
Syrian transitional government engaged in various armed altercations with the SDF in the months after the
March 10 agreement, predominantly in Deir ez-Zor Governorate. On 18 January 2026, the
Syrian armed forces captured the entire governorate from the SDF during the
2026 northeastern Syria offensive. == Demographics ==