A recent influx of militiamen affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has triggered a severe bread shortage in the eastern Syria border town of Albu Kamal, a local activist said.

A large number of IRGC-aligned militiamen arrived in the Deir Ezzor province town a few days ago, Albu Kamal media activist Ayham al-Ali told Diyaruna.

"They laid claim to around 80% of the bread produced by the only operational automated bakery in the town," he said, triggering a bread shortage for the rest of the local population.

The shortage saw the price of the remaining bread surge, he said.

Meanwhile, civilians stood in long lines in front of the bakery for hours, starting in the early hours of the morning, he said, with little success.

Al-Ali said residents are finding it hard to find flour to bake bread at home, which has been common practice, because the Syrian regime controls all the flour in the region and strictly controls its distribution.

"The IRGC has claimed such large quantities of bread because it has brought in numerous affiliated militiamen from other regions," al-Ali said.

Additionally, he noted, hundreds of Iraqi fighters from the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) have arrived in the area in recent days.

Al-Ali said it seems the IRGC is assembling forces in the area to reinforce its position in Idlib, where its militias are deployed alongside Syrian regime forces.

It is also deploying militiamen in the buffer zone separating regime-controlled areas from those controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, he said, and Hizbullah elements with surveillance equipment have been spotted in this area.