National Post (National Edition)
ISLAMIC STATE’S FINAL MOMENTS AS JIHADISTS FLEE LAST STRONGHOLD
WEST-BACKED COALITION SMASHES SMALL SLIVER OF RESISTANCE IN SYRIA
Western-backed forces claimed Wednesday that ISIL’S caliphate was in its “final moments” after thunderous shelling on its last patch of territory in eastern Syria prompted a wave of jihadists to surrender.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) estimated that about 3,000 people had walked out of the shrinking Baghuz pocket in the past 48 hours, most of whom were fighters, suggesting a co-ordinated surrender.
Men, women and children climbed a road at the edge of Baghuz that winds along a cliff overlooking what remains of a tent encampment, heading out. Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces said they searched the evacuees as they reached the front lines.
Many of the people carried rolls of blankets and clothes but cast them aside as they made their way up the hill. Women carried babies as children slowly made their way up the rocky terrain. Most of the men appeared to be wounded, with many limping or walking with crutches, and they carried little aside from water bottles. Women were weighted down with duffel and plastic bags, and children holding onto their arms or to the black robes they wore.
The sound of sporadic gunfire echoed off the cliff and U.s.-led coalition planes flew overhead.
SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said after an intensive offensive Wednesday from multiple fronts, “a large number” of ISIL militants and their families “started to surrender” early Thursday.
The UN said in a Wednesday report that some 7,000 new evacuees are expected to arrive at an already overpopulated displaced people’s camp to the north over the next few days.
The final band of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants — estimated now to be in their hundreds — still managed to launch two counterattacks Wednesday.
“The second one was much stronger since they took advantage of smoke, dust and sand over Baghuz,” a spokesman for the SDF told The Daily Telegraph. “Fighting is still continuing. Daesh (an Arabic acronym for ISIL) made no progress and were stopped.”
ISIL has often carried out attacks during sandstorms, which ground U.s.-led coalition aircraft and leave SDF fighters unprotected. However, a number of its suicide bombers were stopped from reaching their positions.
Windy conditions continued on Thursday, and SDF commanders inspected front-line positions early in the day.
A day after the heavy bombing and clashes, it was quiet Thursday. By early afternoon, it began drizzling. The battle to retake Baghuz and surrounding villages began in September, but has been paused on a number of occasions to allow civilians out.
The coalition Wednesday released figures showing that between February 24 and March 9 they had halted 35 car and truck bombs — an extraordinarily high number for a relatively small space. “We are still countering the assault until this very moment,” said another official. “This could be their final attack.”
ISIL put out a propaganda video overnight on Monday that was filmed in recent weeks inside Baghuz and kept up the pretence that life inside was normal. It urged its supporters to keep the faith.
“Tomorrow, God willing, we will be in paradise and they will be burning in hell,” one of the men interviewed in the 15-minute video said.
At the same time it released a shorter audio, which claimed its remaining fighters and members, including women and children, were being subjected to a “holocaust”.
“Brothers in Europe and in the whole world rise and take revenge for your religion,” one voice urged.
Analysts believe ISIL leaders are directing large numbers of fighters to surrender, in order that they may live and one day regroup.
Some fighters have surrendered in recent weeks, but hard-core militants, including many foreigners, are still holed up in the shrinking space along the eastern banks of the Euphrates River.
Those left in the dwindling Baghuz pocket had been living in a shanty town of tents made from blankets, and in tunnels. During a recent visit to the front line, journalists could see cooking pots and ammunition abandoned on the ground.
The SDF and its U.S. allies had massively underestimated the number of civilians caught up inside the pocket. They had suggested that no more than 2,000 remained in early February, but more than 30,000 have since emerged.
The numbers have overwhelmed aid agencies operating in displacement camps, where more than 100 people have died in recent weeks. The UN’S food agency has appealed for urgent funding for the al-hol camp, which is receiving the bulk of evacuees.
The SDF is said to be in disagreement with Western governments over the fate of jihadists it has captured. It is holding more than 2,000, plus thousands more of their wives and children. The U.K. has taken the toughest stance by refusing to allow its nationals to return and in some cases revoking their citizenship.
(ISIL) MADE NO PROGRESS AND WERE STOPPED.