Kurdish-led forces take control of last Islamic State enclave in east Syria: observatory
Syrian Kurdish-led SDF forces in north Syria, 2019. Photo: SDF Press.
BEIRUT,— The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Kurdish-led fighters seized the last Islamic State enclave in eastern Syria on Saturday after the jihadists who were still there surrendered.
The UK-based war monitoring group said the last few hundred Islamic State militants, many of them foreigners, had surrendered in the past two days to the Syrian Democratic Forces. It said some militants may still be hiding in underground tunnels.
With the help of U.S. airstrikes, the Kurdish-led SDF has battled to crush Islamic State in the shrinking Baghouz enclave east of the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border.
The Kurdish-led forces, began the assault on February 10, seeking to wipe out the last remnants of the jihadist group’s “caliphate” in the SDF’s area of operations in eastern and northern Syria.
‘Large numbers’ of civilians still in IS enclave: Kurd-led forces
“Large numbers” of civilians remain inside the last Islamic State group enclave in Syria prompting a fresh delay in a final advance, Kurdish-led forces said on Saturday.
“There are still civilians inside in large numbers,” US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Adnan Afrin told AFP on the day President Donald Trump said he expected to announce the end of the jihadists’ “caliphate”.
“We weren’t expecting this number, otherwise we wouldn’t have resumed the campaign four days ago. This is why it’s been delayed,” Afrin said.
Washington has for years supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD of Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, considered the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and U.S. has provided them with arms. The YPG, which is the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | Reuters | AFP
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