Syria force wary of human shields in push into IS bastion
BAGHOUZ, Syria: Kurdish-led forces supported by coalition air strikes readied for more evacuations of civilians held as human shields on Monday after smashing their way into the militants’ last bastion in eastern Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Forces and its allies from the Us-led coalition unleashed a deluge of fire on the village of Baghouz at the weekend to break the defences of IS group fighters defending the last dreg of their “caliphate”.
The push on IS’S last pocket of territory had resumed after days of mass evacuations last week but the SDF said on Monday that the operation was being hampered by the presence of more civilians in the besieged enclave.
“We’re slowing down the offensive in Baghouz due to a small number of civilians held as human shields by Daesh,” spokesman Mustefa Bali said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
“In order not to harm them, we are advancing slowly but we assert that the battle of Baghouz will end in a short period of time,” he said.
The frontline appeared calm on Monday, even as war planes zipped over the village of Baghouz.
A field commander said the operation had slowed down since Sunday, when IS family members exited the pocket.
“More are expected to come out today,” he said, though adding there was no clear number.
Despite being hugely outnumbered and outgunned, the diehard militants making a desperate last stand in the riverside hamlet — most of them foreigners according to the SDF — are putting up stiff resistance.
SDF officers perched on rooftops received information from elite units to localise IS positions and passed them on to the coalition to call in air strikes.
IS has lost several of its positions in such strikes since the fighting resumed on Friday night, sending huge clouds of black smoke over Baghouz, a village nestled in a palm-lined bend of the Euphrates River.
“Well played! That was a militant sniper position,” Kurdish commander Hagit Qamishlo relayed into a walkie talkie as he stood on a terrace with AFP reporters about 800 metres (yards) from the impact point.