Kurdish-led forces ready for push on last IS pocket in eastern Syria
DUBAI: Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria prepared Friday for a push on the last remaining speck of the IS group’s “caliphate” where terrorists and their families are holed up.
US President Donald Trump predicted that the once-sprawling proto-state’s official death could be proclaimed as early as next week but operations have been paused for days on the main front line.
Four years ago, IS-controlled vast territory in Syria and administered millions of people, but the US coalition fighting the group said 99.5 per cent of it has been clawed back in successive offensives.
The coalition has been training and providing air support to the Syrian Democratic Forces, which launched an offensive on the last pocket of territory controlled by terrorists in September 2018.
Two months later, they took Hajin, which was the last town of note under IS control and left the terrorists fighting over a few scattered hamlets in the Euphrates Valley. Thousands of suspected IS fighters have attempted to blend in with civilians fleeing the terrorists’ last bastion, including a large number of foreigners.
The SDF have set up screening centres to process the droves of haggard people streaming out of IS-held territory, often famished and covered in dust. British, French, US and other forces are actively looking for wanted IS operatives among those fleeing the combat zone with civilians. After weeks of advancing steadily, the SDF halted their ground assault on IS’s tiny remaining enclave.
“There hasn’t been any big advance or change on our side over the past five days,” an SDF spokesman said on Friday.“Currently, the SDF is advancing very cautiously to ensure the safety of civilians that IS is using as human shields.”
The Kurds, who have de facto autonomy in northeastern Syria, are also engaged in behind-thescenes diplomatic talks over the fate of the region.
Trump said in December that he had ordered a complete troop withdrawal from Syria, a shock announcement that left the Kurds scrambling for new allies.
“We are seeking a political solution in Syria, which requires an agreement with the government in Damascus. We have chosen a political agreement with Damascus because we don’t want secession from Syria,” senior Kurdish official Badran Jia Kurdi said.
More than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of terrorist fighters, have fled IS territory since the SDF, backed by the USled coalition, intensified its offensive in December, according to the Observatory.