Jihadists emerge from tunnels to surrender after ‘caliphate’ falls

BAGHOUZ, Syria: Dozens of Islamic State group jihadists emerged from tunnels to surrender to US- backed forces in eastern Syria on Sunday, a day after their ‘ caliphate’ was declared defeated.

Syria’s Kurds warned that despite the demise of the protostate, the thousands of foreign jihadists they have detained are a time-bomb the world urgently needs to defuse.

An AFP reporter saw dozens of people – mostly men – file out of the battered jihadist encampment in the remote village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border to board pickup trucks.

“They are IS fighters who came out of tunnels and surrendered today,” Kurdish spokesman Jiaker Amed said.

Some sported thick beards and wore long woollen kaftans over their dark- coloured robes, or a chequered scarf around their faces, as they trudged out of their final hideout under the drizzle.

“Some others could still be hiding inside,” said Amed.

World leaders were quick to hail Saturday’s announcement by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that the last shred of land controlled by IS in Syria had been conquered. But the top foreign affairs official for the country’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region warned IS members captured during the assault still posed a threat.

“There are thousands of fighters, children and women and from 54 countries, not including Iraqis and Syrians, who are a serious burden and danger for us and for the international community,” Abdel Karim Omar told AFP.

“Numbers increased massively during the last 20 days of the Baghouz operation,” he said.

He also warned of the continuing danger posed by IS sleeper cells.

The SDF is continuing to carry out operations to rout out any remaining jihadists in the area and uncover possible weapons caches.

“This back- clearance operation will be deliberate and thorough and help ensure the long-term security for the area,” the US-led coalition backing the SDF wrote on Twitter.

As the SDF’s months-long assault closed in against the last IS strongholds in the Euphrates Valley, jihadists and their families gradually gathered in Baghouz.

While some managed to escape, many foreigners stayed behind, either surrendering or fighting to the death.

According to the SDF, 66,000 people left the last IS pocket since January, including 5,000 jihadists and 24,000 of their relatives.

The assault was paused multiple times as the force allowed people to evacuate from the enclave on the banks of the Euphrates.

The SDF have screened droves of people scrambling out of Baghouz in recent weeks, detaining suspected jihadists and trucking civilians and IS relatives to camps further north.

Most relatives have been crammed into the Al-Hol camp, a facility built for 20,000 people but which now shelters 72,000.

The Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria has warned it does not have capacity to detain so many people, let alone put them on trial.

But the home countries of suspected IS members are reluctant to take them back, due to potential security risks and the likely public backlash.

Several held in Syria have been stripped of their citizenship. — AFP