Daesh losing the battle in eastern Syria
omar oil field (Syria) — US-backed forces were locked in fierce fighting on Sunday as they pressed the battle against the last shred of Daesh’s “caliphate” in eastern Syria.
The militants overran large parts of the country and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, but various military offensives have since reduced that territory to a patch on the Iraqi border.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by a US-led coalition, announced a final push to retake the militant pocket late on Saturday, after a pause of more than a week to allow civilians to flee. SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali on Sunday afternoon said his fighters had battled their way forward against the militants, capturing 41 positions from them. —
hasakeh (syria) — US-backed forces were locked in fierce fighting on Sunday as they pressed the battle against the last shred of the Daesh group’s “caliphate” in eastern Syria.
The militants overran large parts of the country and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, but various military offensives have since reduced that territory to a patch on the Iraqi border.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by a US-led coalition, announced a final push to retake the militant pocket late on Saturday, after a pause of more than a week to allow civilians to flee.
An SDF field commander said his fighters were battling their way forward on Sunday morning. “There are heavy clashes at the moment. We have launched an assault and the fighters are advancing,” he said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group said coalition planes and artillery bombarded militant positions. “The battle is ongoing. There were heavy clashes this morning, with landmines going off,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britainbased Observatory.
The SDF launched an offensive to expel Daesh from the oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor in September. The Kurdish-led alliance has since whittled down militant-held territory to a scrap of just four square kilometres between the Euphrates and the Iraqi border.
Up to 600 militants could still remain inside, most of them foreigners, according to SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali. But he added the extremist group’s elusive leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was likely not in the pocket.
“We do not think he is in Syria,” Bali said, without adding any details about his whereabouts.
On the Iraqi side of the border, French members of the coalition on Saturday stood ready to pour fury on any Daesh diehards seeking to escape.
Dozens of 155mm shells were lined up ready to be loaded onto three green-and-black Caesar gunhowitzers with a range of 40km.
Coalition deputy commander
Our fighters were battling their way forward. There are heavy clashes at the moment. We have launched an assault and the fighters are advancing
An SDF field commander
Christopher Ghika on Friday said Iraqi forces had sealed the border into their country.
At the height of their rule, the militants imposed their brutal interpretation
of laws on a territory roughly the size of Britain.
But separate military offensives in both countries, including by the SDF, have since retaken the vast
bulk of that “caliphate”. On Saturday, Bali said he expected the battle for the last patch of Daesh territory to be over in days.
The militants however retain a presence in Syria’s vast Badia desert, and have claimed a series of deadly attacks by sleeper cells in SDF-held areas. Since December, more than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of fighters, have fled out into SDF-held areas, the Observatory says.
That figure includes some 3,400 suspected militants detained by the SDF, according to the monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information.
Syria’s conflict has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since erupting eight years ago after a brutal crackdown of anti-government protests. —