Civilians, including children, leave IS-held enclave
BAGHOUZ, Syria — A convoy of trucks carrying hundreds of men, women and children left the last enclave held by Islamic State militants in eastern Syria on Wednesday, signaling a possible end to a standoff that has lasted for more than a week.
The tiny enclave on the banks of the Euphrates River is the final scrap of territory left to the extremist group. Its recapture by US-backed Syrian fighters would spell the territorial defeat of the IS group and allow US President Donald Trump to begin withdrawing US troops from northern Syria, as he has pledged to do, opening a new chapter in Syria’s eight-year civil war.
Few believe, however, that ending the group’s territorial rule will end the threat posed by an organization that still stages and inspires attacks through sleeper cells in both Syria and Iraq.
About 300 IS militants — many of them foreign fighters — are believed to be holed up in the enclave in the remote village of Baghouz, along with several hundred civilians believed to be mostly family members.
The presence of many civilians intermingled with the militants in a crammed space halted the military offensive by the US-backed militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces and led to a dayslong standoff with the militants. SDF officials said the militants have refuse to surrender and had, at least initially, prevented the civilians from leaving.
It was not immediately clear what enabled the evacuation on Wednesday. But Mustafa Bali, spokesman for the SDF, said an operation by special forces enabled the He didn’t elaborate.
Fighters have said food supplies and ammunition for the besieged militants have been fast diminishing.
An Associated Press team in Baghouz counted at least 22 trucks that emerged from the enclave. In past weeks, nearly 20,000 have walked for hours through a humanitarian corridor to exit the militants’ last patch of territory along the river. Many paid smugglers and some have come under fire from the militants for attempting to leave.
Bali said there are still more civilians evacuation. among the militants and the SDF would continue efforts to evacuate them. The militants refusing to surrender will face a military operation, he said.
There were reports of IS militants surrendering, but the US-led coalition said those reports could not be independently verified. In a tweet, it said the SDF continue to receive civilians attempting to escape to safety and the most hardened IS fighters still remain in Baghouz.
The number of those evacuated was not clear, nor whether IS militants were also on board the trucks. Bali said a record of those evacuated would be made available later.
Meanwhile, Iraqi security said on Wednesday that 24 IS militants, who infiltrated from neighboring Syria, were captured in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh.
On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said that Iraq is concerned about developments of the battles in neighboring Syria, which is witnessing the clearing of the last pocket of IS extremist group near the Syrian border with Iraq.