SDF fighters celebrate ISIS defeat in eastern Syria

Fighters of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have broken into song and dance as they celebrate the complete elimination of the Islamic State (ISIS) group in eastern Syria on Saturday. 

Kurdish-led forces pronounced the death of the Islamic State group’s nearly five-year-old “caliphate” early on March 23 after flushing out diehard jihadists from their very last bastion in Deir ez-Zor province, eastern Syria.

In Al-Omar, an oil field used as the main SDF staging base for the final phase of the assault, fighters in their best fatigues laid down their weapons and broke into song and dance.

Photos by Delil Souleiman / AFP