WITH SHROUDED FACES, FIGHTERS STAND GUARD OVER FINAL ENCLAVE

BAGHOUZ (SYRIA) — Armed with assault rifles and with faces wrapped in scarves, the Daesh fighters visible at the boundary of their last enclave in eastern Syria are among the hardened militants who appear ready to fight to the death.

Thousands of people — many of them the wives of Daesh fighters and their children — have been streaming out of the besieged enclave at Baghouz for weeks, forcing the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to delay an assault on the last vestige of the militants’ territorial rule.

A TV footage of the Daeshcontrolled frontline shows armed militants, most with only their eyes visible, supervising the evacuations from a scrubby patch of agricultural land scattered with vehicles and a few buildings.

The SDF has said the fighters staying put through waves of evacuations are the most hardened foreign militants, wanted by governments around the world, who are likely to fight to the death.

On Saturday, a witness saw dozens of mostly men cross from Daesh territory into SDF-controlled lines. The SDF said these were wounded Daesh fighters.

A few women in full face-covering black robes and children carrying bags could be seen among the people milling at the frontline. A man on crutches was also visible.

A no-man’s land of about 200m separates SDF positions from the Daesh frontline at Baghouz, a collection of hamlets and farmland near the border with Iraq.

Evacuees are screened by the SDF as they emerge and are sent north to the Al Hol camp, already overcrowded with uprooted Syrians and Iraqis from years of war and struggling to cope with the influx. —