IS suffers territorial losses in Syria, Iraq
BEIRUT — With new losses, the Islamic State group has been driven from more than 96 percent of the large parts of Iraq and Syria it once held, crushing its goal of establishing a "caliphate" in the region.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's military on Friday announced the capture of the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zour, while Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi proclaimed victory in retaking the town of Qaim on the border, the militants' last significant urban area in Iraq.
The militants are left fighting for a final stretch inside Syria and desert regions along the IraqSyria border. Three years ago, they had defiantly erased that line, knocking down berms marking the frontier.
Since then, they have lost infrastructure, resources, supply routes, control over about 8 million people and–most importantly– administration of a contiguous territory. The extremist group may still prove to be a major challenge for months as it turns to a clandestine insurgency.
What the group lost in the last 11 months: QAIM — Iraqi forces' operation against IS began in Qaim, along the border with Syria, in the last week of October. On Friday, Iraq said it now controls the town and the nearby border crossing with Syria, which the IS used to move fighters and supplies between the two countries when the group controlled nearly a third of Iraqi territory.
DEIR EL-ZOUR — The Syrian government declared Friday that it has taken full control of Deir el-Zour, where its troops and tens of thousands of civilians have been besieged by IS militants for nearly three years. General Ali Mayhoub, spokesman for the Syrian army, called it a strategic victory.
RAQQA — This IS group's de-facto capital fell to Kurdish-led forces on October 17, four months after operations to reclaim it began. The city was the group's hub of operations, and its capture was a major symbolic blow.