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.

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.

[10] On 11 April 2014, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) withdrew from Abu Kamal to the T2 oil site, where a Syria-Iraq pipeline runs.

[11] 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.

The city of Deir ez-Zor was split between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and an amalgam of rebel groups.

[12] 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.

On 14 October 2017, Russia confirmed that Al-Mayadeen was recaptured by the Syrian army amid a major offensive.