IS fighters face defeat in Baghouz
SCORES of Islamic State fighters surrendered to US-backed forces yesterday, a war monitor said, after a ferocious assault to overrun their last shred of territory in eastern Syria.
Islamic State (IS) faces defeat in Baghouz, the only remaining patch of land it still holds in the area straddling Iraq and Syria where it declared a caliphate in 2014, although it still has control in a few remote areas.
Early yesterday, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had slowed their assault on Islamic State because more civilians were trapped in the area, though it vowed to capture it soon.
A convoy of trucks was visible heading into Baghouz in the morning, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 150 jihadists left the enclave along with about 250 other people.
There was no immediate confirmation of the surrenders from the SDF or any indication as to how many jihadists remained holed up inside the enclave.
Islamic State’s fighters have gradually fallen back on Baghouz at the Iraqi border as they retreated down the Euphrates in the face of sustained assault in both countries, after its grotesque displays of cruelty roused global fury.
Despite the setbacks, the group remains a deadly threat, developing alternatives to its caliphate ranging from rural insurgency to urban bombings by affiliates in the region and beyond, many governments say.
The SDF this weekend resumed its assault on the group’s pocket in the village of Baghouz, the culmination of a campaign that included the capture of Raqqa in 2017, when IS also faced other big defeats in Iraq and Syria.
The militia had already paused its attack for weeks to allow thousands of people to flee the area, including Islamic State supporters, fighters, children, local people and some of the group’s captives.
It said on Friday that only jihadists remained, but now says some more civilians are left.
“We’re slowing down the offensive in Baghouz due to a small number of civilians held as human shields by Daesh,” said SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali on Twitter, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
However, “the battle to retake the last ISIS holdout is going to be over soon”, he added.
Dozens of trucks similar to those that had evacuated people from the enclave in recent weeks were visible heading back there yesterday and the drivers said they were going to pick people up at Baghouz. INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi has slammed opposition parties for demanding evidence about last week’s military strike inside Pakistan, and support for him is rising, pollsters say, despite the questions about how successful it was.
It’s tricky to be seen questioning the armed forces in India, particularly when there is conflict with arch-enemy Pakistan. But that hasn’t stopped opposition leaders from raising doubts about the government’s official claims that a “very large number” of members of an Islamist militant group were killed in the strike by Indian warplanes early on February 26. The government has rejected the demand for proof.
“At a time when our army is engaged in crushing terrorism, inside the country and outside, there are some people within the country who are trying to break their morale, which is cheering our enemy,” Modi said.
With tension at fever pitch with Pakistan, and India’s general election due by May, the stakes are high. Pakistan responded with an air strike of its own, but no one was killed in that operation. The situation is slightly calmer but remains fraught; the two armies continue to regularly trade artillery fire along the frontier.
“If (the opposition) continues this campaign on … national security, I’m afraid it is not going to stick and it’s only going to help Modi,” said Yashwant Deshmukh, the founder of polling agency C-Voter.
Deshmukh said Modi’s approval rating had soared to levels not seen since mid-2017, according to C-Voter’s estimates. Opinion polls conducted before the tension with Pakistan broke out mostly predicted Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would struggle to win a majority because of a slowing economy, low rural incomes and the government’s inability to provide more jobs.
But analysts say Modi’s support is now rising, mainly because right-wing parties like the BJP have an advantage over others on national security issues.
“It is deeply regrettable and politically immoral on the part of the BJP to make political capital out of military endeavours during cross-border tension with Pakistan,” said Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha.
Mehbooba Mufti, who governed the state of Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the BJP until they split last year, agreed it was important for the opposition to not let Modi make the election all about the strikes.