Caliphate reduced to crumbs
Islamic State’s territory has been reduced to a rump of desert and a few small towns after it suffered defeats on both sides of the IraqSyria border yesterday.
Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s regime said it had freed the last districts of Deir el-Zour, the biggest city where Isis still had a grip after the fall of Mosul and Raqqa.
Meanwhile, the government in Iraq said its troops had entered the town of al-Qaim and taken control of the nearby border post at Husaybah.
The defeats bring closer the end of the Isis ‘‘caliphate’’ but also a possible clash between American and Iranian-backed forces. The Assad regime, which is supported heavily by Iran, and the Kurdishled Syrian Democratic Forces, armed and trained by the West, are converging on remaining Isis-held territory along the border.
A newspaper close to Iranbacked Lebanese militia Hezbollah yesterday claimed that a senior American official had travelled to Damascus to hold talks with a senior regime security official.
Al-Akhbar said the official wanted to discuss Americans missing in Syria but also to give assurances that America’s interest was solely in the defeat of Isis, and that it did not intend to challenge the Assad regime. The newspaper said the regime had demanded that Washington make its policy public.
After yesterday’s battles, the USled coalition said it thought that there were only 1500 to 2500 Isis fighters left on the Iraqi side of the border, and up to 3000 on the Syrian side. Spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said he expected many to try to flee, but that the coalition aimed to annihilate the leaders.
Iraqi armed forces have made swift work of clearing pockets of Isis territory after Mosul fell in July. The city of Tal Afar, a jihadist stronghold, fell in a few days, and the town of Hawija did not last much longer.
Syrian state media said Deir elZour had been cleared but hinted at future conflict. ‘‘Large numbers of Isis terrorists’’ were killed, it said, but added that the victory was an important step to ‘‘foiling the attempts of the US-led coalition to prolong the existence of the terrorist organisation to implement its anti-Syrian agenda’’.
The defeats leave the Syrian town of Boukamal as the only urban area still completely under Isis control, along with scattered pockets of territory along the SyriaIraq border.
Syrian troops backed by Russia and Kurdish-led forces supported by the US are now racing toward Boukamal from opposite sides of the Euphrates River, triggering concerns that a proxy showdown could ensue between the two sides.
Both the US and Russia have embedded special forces with their respective partners and are supporting their advances with air strikes. Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, said six Tu-22M bombers struck Isis targets near Boukamal, while two Russian submarines in the Mediterranean Sea launched six cruise missiles at Isis targets.
‘‘With the loss of Deir el-Zour, Daesh loses its ability to lead terrorist operations by its militants, who are now isolated and encircled eastern countryside of the city,’’ said General Ali Mayhoub, declaring victory in a statement read on Syrian TV, using an Arabic name for Isis.
Deir el-Zour, which had been divided into a government-held and an Isis-held part for nearly three years, is the largest city in eastern Syria and the capital of the oil-rich province of the same name. It is also the largest city to be recaptured by the Syrian government from Isis. Mayhoub described it as the ‘‘last phase’’ of the military’s campaign toward the annihilation of Isis in Syria.
While the city was divided, the United Nations was only occasionally able to deliver helicopterdropped food aid to the besieged residents, estimated to number about 200,000.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbdi congratulated Iraqi forces on retaking al-Qaim just over a week after the operation began. The town, about 320km west of Baghdad in the Euphrates River Valley, was used by Isis to move fighters and supplies between the two countries.
At the height of the caliphate, in 2014 and 2015, Isis held nearly a third of both Iraq and Syria. The group has lost more than 96 per cent of the territory it once held, including Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul, which it lost in July, and Raqqa, the group’s one-time de facto capital in northern Syria, which it lost last month.
The militants, routed from one urban stronghold after another, have recently been moving deeper into Syria’s remote desert, where they are believed to be regrouping and preparing to return to guerrilla-style tactics, including scattered hit-and-run attacks and suicide bombings. Experts agree that the territorial losses will not mark the end of Isis, which will continue its insurgency and try to inspire attacks around the globe by disenchanted individuals.