Syria: Residents of Deir Ezzor struggle amid IS siege The residents of the government-held neighborhoods in Deir Ezzor in Syria struggle to survive amid the Islamic State group offensive, with dozens of its fighters carrying out suicide bomb attacks as they storm government positions. The jihadists now control 60 percent of the city, intensifying a siege that had already caused fear and hardship for the roughly 200,000 people still living there. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES