Syrian Kurdish-led fighters take Hajin, last town held by ISIL

BEIRUT — U.S.-backed Kurdishled fighters captured the last town held by the Islamic State group on Friday, after three months of ferocious battles in the militants’ single remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists and Kurdish officials said.

The fall of Hajin marks an end to the extremist group’s hold over any significant urban area, which in three years shrank from large swaths of Iraq and Syria the militants once held to this small enclave near the two countries’ shared border.

The capture of Hajin does not, however, mark the end of the group, which still holds some villages nearby and has a scattered presence and sleeper cells in both countries.

As the offensive by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces intensified over the past days under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, ISIL fighters withdrew south to areas east of the Euphrates River and west of SDF positions along the border with Iraq.

Among the villages still held by extremists in the enclave are Sousa, Buqaan, Shaafah, Baghouz and Shajla.

The latest push has also raised questions about the fate of ISIL leader and founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who has not been seen in public since he announced his self-styled caliphate in 2014 from a mosque’s pulpit in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Last month, ISIL suffered a severe blow when the SDF said it captured Osama Owayed al-Saleh, a top aide to al-Baghdadi.

“It is a very difficult battle,” SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali told The Associated Press from Syria where he said ISIL fighters are still attacking Hajin. He added that most of ISIL fighters besieged in the enclave are among the most experienced gunmen who came to the area from Iraq and Syria.

“There are still villages to be taken but Hajin was the most important as it was the base for commanders from where they directed military operations,” Bali said.

Iraqi Major Gen. Qassem Mohammed, in charge of operations in areas close to the Syrian border, said artillery strikes by the U.S.-led coalition on the Iraqi side of the border targeted Hajin and areas around it.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF took Hajin early in the morning, after fierce fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. It said some ISIL fighters withdrew to nearby villages and that fighting is still ongoing in fields outside Hajin as SDF fighters chase out the extremists.

Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed that the town had been recaptured, adding that some ISIL fighters are still holed up in small pockets on the edge of Hajin.

Abu Layla said that disagreements among ISIL ranks over hierarchy between Iraqi and Syrian fighters helped “speed up the collapse” of the extremist group’s defences in Hajin.

Nuri Mehmud, spokesperson of the Syrian Kurdish militia known as People’s Protection Units, or YPG, also the main component of the SDF, said “intense fighting” is still ongoing in small parts of Hajin.

The area is home to some 15,000 people, including 2,000 ISIL gunmen who fought back with counteroffensives and suicide attacks.