able to survive the onslaught. The Hamdan airport was the last remaining place in the vicinity of Abu Kamal where pro-Assad forces kept their stations. On 28 September, a rebel brigade commander said that after the rebels pulled back from al-Qusour and al-Joura neighborhoods, these locations were then stormed by units of the Syrian army which carried out summary executions. He also said that 80 percent of the city was in hands of FSA, with only a military airport and part of Mayadin District remaining in government hands. The Syrian Army also launched an operation to recapture the Rashidiya neighbourhood. On 4 November, rebels captured the Al Ward oil field after three days of heavy fighting. On 15 November, rebels took control of the military headquarters in Abu Kamal, after fierce clashes with government forces. On 16 November, rebels seized the military airport of Hamdan, the final place that the government controlled in Abu Kamal. The airport was in fact a base used to transport farm products that was turned into a helicopter base. With the fall of Abu Kamal, the main military airport of Deir ez-Zor was the only regime military airbase in the region, thus creating the largest rebel controlled area in the country. However, after the fall of Hamdan, 12 rebels were killed in the shelling on the outskirts of the city by the army. By 21 November, rebels controlled two of three major oilfields in the province and were using them to supply themselves with oil. They were preparing for the capture of the remaining one, but needed engineers to operate it. Plans to advance north into Kurdish-dominated Hasakah Province were reportedly also being made. On 30 November, SOHR reported that government troops abandoned the Omar oilfield east of Deir ez-Zor, which was soon occupied by opposition forces. Only five minor fields west of the city still remained under government control. On 22 November, after 20 days of siege rebels also captured the Mayadin military base from which soldiers evacuated to Deir ez-Zor airbase, thus forcing out any government elements from area spanning from Iraqi city to capitol of the province. Two days later, the rebels surrounded the airport. On 3 December, fierce combat broke out in the Mouzafin and Joubaila districts of Deir ez-Zor, while rebels reportedly shelled the nearby military airbase. On 12 December, the French Aid agency, Médecins Sans Frontières called for sick