I.S. FACES FINAL TERRITORIAL DEFEAT
Indonesian widow among fighters and followers pouring out from Baghouz
ISLAMIC State faced final territorial defeat yesterday as the United States-backed Syrian force battling the jihadists said it was closing in on their last bastion near the Iraqi border, capping four years of efforts to roll back the group.
While the fall of Baghouz, an eastern Syrian village on the bank of the Euphrates River, would mark a milestone in the campaign against Islamic State (IS), they remain a threat, using guerilla tactics and holding some desolate land further west.
An array of enemies, both local and international, confronted IS after it declared a modern-day “caliphate” in 2014 across large swathes of territory it had seized in lightning offensives in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
Thousands of IS fighters and followers, who had retreated to Baghouz as the group was gradually driven out of those lands, have poured out of the tiny cluster of hamlets and farmlands here over the last few weeks.
Their evacuation held up the final assault until Friday evening, when the SDF said it had advanced and would not stop until the jihadists were defeated.
“We expect it to be over soon,” said Mustafa Bali, a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman.
He said the SDF were advancing on two fronts using medium and heavy weaponry, and three of its fighters had been wounded.
The number of evacuees streaming out of Baghouz surpassed initial estimates of how many were inside.
An SDF commander said on Thursday that many of the people leaving the enclave had been sheltering underground in caves and tunnels.
An 27-year-old Indonesian widow who emerged on Friday, said she would have liked to stay in IS territory but conceded that conditions had become untenable.
“I have no money, I have no food for my baby, no medicine, nothing for my baby, so I must go out,” she said.