LAST DAYS OF ISIS BRITONS UK jihadis surrounded in Syria
FIFTY high-ranking Brits are among ISIS fighters mounting a last stand.
The terror group faces complete defeat, according to US-backed forces.
ISIS is reduced to a cluster of diehard jihadists on the brink of capture or death at the hands of advancing Kurdish and Arab fighters in south east Syria, they say.
No more than 500 senior militants are understood to remain in the nooks and crannies of Marashida and Baghuz Fawqani, two villages on the banks of the Euphrates river.
When ISIS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi declared a worldwide caliphate in June 2014, the jihadist group laid claim to vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.
At its peak, an estimated 10million people were living in territories under ISIS control, from Mosul in Iraq to Raqqa in Syria.
Now a sliver of land, approximately two to five square miles near the Syria-Iraqi border, is all they have left of their caliphate.
The operation to purge these villages of ISIS militants is believed to be entering its final stages. The People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say they are days away from liberating every territory in Syria from the clutches of ISIS.
A spokesman for the SDF said: “We have reached the final stage of the operation. We estimate that in maybe about a month or so we will completely liberate that area.”
Another said: “With the support of airstrikes by the US-led coalition, the hardcore heart of ISIS could be rooted out within a day The time to negotiate is over. They need to give up or they die.”
At the height of its powers, ISIS attracted many Western fighters lured by its promise of an Islamic utopia.
But in recent days and weeks, Western ISIS fighters have been surrendering in their droves.
The Foreign Office would not comment on the status of Brits imprisoned in Syria.
DAILY STAR SUNDAY SAYS
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