At least five senior Isis leaders have been killed in air strikes in Syria, US Central Command and the Russian Ministry of Defence have reported.

US-led coalition bombing dispatched two weapons experts in the east of Deir Ezzor on Thursday, a statement from the Combined Joint Task Force said.

Abu Anas al-Shami, who spearheaded Isis attempts to procure explosives used in terror attacks both inside and outside Syria, was killed near the city of Mayadin, coalition spokesperson Colonel Ryan Dillon told reporters at the Pentagon.

Footage shows Isis schoolgirl Linda Wenzel being captured in Iraq

“He also oversaw the building of improvised explosives to rig corpses, vehicles and buildings to try and help Isis cling to strongholds they are losing in Iraq and Syria,” he added.

Junaid ur Rehman, a drone pilot who was skilled at modifying drones into weapons, was killed in the village of al-Ashara, just south of Mayadin.

Also in Deir Ezzor province – where with the help of Russian air power the Syrian army has managed to break an Isis siege on the town of the same name for the first time since the militants surrounded it three years ago – Russian jets reportedly killed more than 40 combatants in recent strikes, including four senior commanders who were meeting at an important underground command-and-control centre.

Isis’ war minister Gulmurod Khalimov – originally from Tajikistan – and the “Emir of Deir Ezzor” Abu Muhammad Al-Shmali, the organisation’s finance minister, were among the dead, the Russian defence ministry said on Friday.

Khalimov, the US-trained commander of Tajikistan’s elite police force, defected to Isis in April 2015 and later posted a video in which he vowed to return home to establish sharia law in his home country and take the holy jihad to Russia and the US.

Al-Shmali’s death has also previously been claimed by US forces.

In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Show all 11 1 /11 In pictures: Isis' weapons factories In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A mortar round fin manufactured by Isis in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis rocket components discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, Iraq in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis mortars discovered near Karamlais, Iraq, in November 2016 CAR In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis rocket launch frame in Qaraqosh, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A memo from Isis' COSQC on quality control at a manufacturing facility in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Electrically-operated initiators manufactured by Isis in forces Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis mortar tubes at a manufacturing facility in Karamlais, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis mortar production facility discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis weapons manufacturing facilities near Mosul in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Stocks of French-manufactured Sorbitol, Latvian potassium nitrate and Lebanese sugar at an Isis weapons factory in Iraq Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A destroyed Isis weapons facility in Qaraqosh, Iraq, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research

“Effective actions of the Russian Aerospace Forces made it possible to speed up the unblocking of the city of Deir Ezzor and allow the Syrian troops to start its immediate liberation,” Moscow said in a statement.

The Syrian army and militias loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – led by General Suheil al-Hassan, known as “the Tiger” – managed to break through Isis’ defences for the first time on Tuesday.

On Thursday, comprehensive shipments reached the city’s besieged 70,000 civilians, who have been reliant for years on erratic UN airdrops of food and medicine.

Ousting Isis from Deir Ezzor will be the latest victory for Mr Assad, who has slowly gained the upper hand against Islamist and other rebel groups in Syria’s six-year-old war since Russia intervened in the conflict in 2015.

The militants are also under significant pressure in their de facto capital of Raqqa, south of Deir Ezzor, where the US-backed Arab and Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has now retaken 6 per cent of the city in a battle which has seen significant civilian casualties.

The SDF is now preparing to take the jihadists on in the most well-defended neighbourhoods of the town.

Isis lost control of its largest city, Mosul in neighbouring Iraq, in July.