Isil on verge of collapse as last major town falls to Assad

THE last major town held by Isil in Syria was reported to have fallen to government forces last night, leaving the terror group near complete collapse.

The offensive to retake Abu Kamal in eastern Syria was launched several days ago after regime troops and allied militias, under the cover of Russian air power, captured the last city held by the Islamic State, Deir Ezzor.

Yesterday, fighters from the Iranbacked Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Unit (PMU) crossed the frontier to squeeze the group from the east.

Its commander announced the complete liberation late last night, but there was no immediate confirmation from the Syrian government.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which once controlled a “caliphate” the size of Britain spanning Iraq and Syria, has lost more than 95 per cent of its territory. It is now confined to a small desert pocket along the Syrian border, where they are putting up a last stand.

Omar Abu Layla, director of the Deir Ezzor 24 news agency, told The Daily Telegraph he believed the jihadists now numbered in the low thousands and many of them are foreign.

“Isil was preserving the foreign fighters for the biggest battle at the end,” he said. “They are fighting for their life in the desert, they won’t give up easily like they did in Deir Ezzor.”

The Syrian government has sworn to recapture the whole of Syria, including Isil’s former capital Raqqa and oil and gas fields lying east of the Euphrates currently being held by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

On Tuesday, Bouthaina Shaaban, senior adviser to Bashar al-assad, described US forces aiding the SDF as illegal invaders. Washington has not spelled out how military support for the SDF would evolve after Isil’s defeat.