Push to evict Daesh from last post sees slow progress

omar oil field (Syria) — Syrian fighters backed up by artillery fire from a US-led coalition pressed their assault on Monday to retake a last morsel of territory from the Daesh group, a war monitor said.

More than four years after the extremists declared a “caliphate” across large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq, several offensives have whittled that proto-state down to a tiny holdout.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Saturday announced the final push to expel hundreds of diehard militants from that patch in eastern Syria on the Iraq border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters was pressing on Monday in the face of tough obstacles.

“The SDF are advancing slowly in what remains of the Daesh pocket,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

But landmines, Daesh snipers, and tunnels the extremists have dug out for their defence are hindering the advance, he said.

SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said there were “dozens of SDF hostages held by Daesh” inside their last foothold, but denied reports of executions.

The alliance has been battling to oust the miltants from the eastern province of Deir Ezzor since September, backed by air power of the US-led coalition.

Since December, tens of thousands of people have fled to SDF territory.

US-backed forces near the village of Baghouz have screened the new arrivals. Another 600 people were able to reach SDF territory on Sunday after fleeing the fighting, the Observatory said.

Among them, were 20 suspected Daesh members, including two French women, seven Turks, and three Ukrainians, said the monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria. —