BEIRUT ( Sunni Fighters Control an Area 5 Times the Size of Lebanon in Syria )

BEIRUT – Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters control all of the eastern section of the Syrian province of Deir Ez-zor and now occupy an area five times the size of Lebanon in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.

ISIS, a Sunni insurgent group, took the eastern part of Deir Ez-zor after seizing the province’s largest city, Al Mayadeen, and now also controls the Al Omar oil field, which is Syria’s largest with a production capacity of 73,000 barrels per day, the human rights group said, citing activists.

The group’s forces moved in as fighters from the al-Nusra Front, a branch of Al Qaeda in Syria, and other rebel factions pulled out of the province after announcing they would stop fighting the ISIS, said the London-based group, which has a large network of activists on the ground across Syria.

ISIS forces now dominate an area that extends from the eastern city of al-Bukamal, near the Syria-Iraq border, to the outskirts of the northwestern city of Aleppo.

In the north, the Islamists have taken a large part of the border region between Syria and Turkey, with the exception of Kurdish-majority areas, such as parts of Al Hasaka province, and some Arab villages, while in the south they have reached the central provinces of Hama and Homs.

ISIS proclaimed an Islamic Caliphate Sunday in the large swath of territory it holds across Syria and neighboring Iraq.

The group, now calling itself just the Islamic State, has been fighting several other rebel groups, including the al-Nusra Front, in Syria since January