Isil clings to the last few yards of the caliphate
Jihadists make their final stand against Syrian Democratic forces in a town reduced to rubble
Not so long ago, the small Syrian town of Baghuz must have been a pleasant place. Nestled among pomegranate groves and palm trees on the banks of the meandering Euphrates, it was a place of fertile soil, broad gardens, and a moderate winter climate.
But yesterday it was a scene of horrific destruction – its roads cratered, homes flattened and gardens destroyed as the most fanatical fighters of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) made their last stand against Western-backed forces.
The campaign against Isil has been immensely destructive. Surrounding villages retaken earlier in the campaign are ghost towns, with dozens of houses reduced to rubble, huge craters severing roads, and barely a single civilian vehicle in recognisable condition. The civilian population has vanished.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have spent months methodically boxing Isil into a small patch of ground here, and announced the beginning of the operation to storm their final tiny redoubt on Friday evening. Backed by coalition artillery, airstrikes, and C-130 gunships, they had planned to finish the operation to take the caliphate’s last 700m circle of territory in just two days.
But the advance was immediately slowed by Isil counter attacks using suicide car bombs, IEDS, and heatseeking missiles, and a ground assault planned for Saturday afternoon had to be postponed until sunset.
“We’ve been fighting off counter attacks all day. But if the day is for them, the night is for us,” said Memmo Van, a unit commander directing the night battle from a rooftop command post as the assault got under way.
Watching red tracers and artillery rounds flash across the sky, he added with a certain relish: “We really have the feeling now that we have broken their backs. They cannot retaliate.“
Less than 500m from Mr Van’s rooftop command post, his men were engaged in furious machinegun duels, and called in airstrikes to take out suicide car bombers driving towards their lines.
Mr Van said three SDF fighters had been killed by snipers and improvised explosive devices in the day’s fighting so far. “In some places there are metres between us, others we are on one side of a door and they are on the other. The fighting now is face to face,” said Mahmoud Soro, an SDF sniper.
More than once, an incoming airstrike landed close enough to shake the building. It was one of few distinguishable sounds amid a din of British and French artillery, heavy machinegun fire and exploding ammunition dumps. From somewhere in the black sky came the repetitive thud of a circling US C-130 gunship.
By yesterday afternoon, two SDF flanking columns had linked up on the bank of the Euphrates, and Isil was penned into a patch of ground equivalent to a few football pitches. Smoke rose from the site of fresh airstrikes. But despite the fearsome firepower deployed, commanders admitted that progress had slowed and victory is still not in sight.
Mustafa Bali, the SDF’S spokesman, yesterday declined to put a timeline on the unfolding battle, saying extensive tunnel systems and booby traps used by Isil would take time to clear. He had earlier predicted the two-day plan would take a week to complete.
“Isil fighters have been using suicide vests and car bombs to slow down the SDF offensive and hide from coalition strikes in the area of Baghuz,” said Col Sean Ryan, a coalition spokesman. “They still hold civilians and are lacing the tunnels with IEDS as well,” he said, referring to improvised explosive devices.
No one knows how many fighters remain in Baghuz, but Mr Bali said a rough estimate was between 1,000 and 1,500. He said 20 bodies had been recovered so far.
Although over 10,000 people left the pocket before the offensive began, a number of women, children and possibly Western hostages are believed to still be inside.
Mr Van, the front line commander, said troops have been instructed to avoid destroying a cluster of farm buildings where intelligence suggested hostages had once been held. But as fresh airstrikes slammed into the narrow area yesterday, the chances of anyone surviving seemed slim.
Baghuz is the last settlement controlled by Isil’s self-proclaimed caliphate, which at its peak ruled over eight million people across large areas of Syria and Iraq.
Its fall will be a major victory for the SDF and its American, British, and French allies. But no one here is under any illusions about the group’s ability to endure as an insurgency.
Several “liberated” areas have already seen a resurgence of drive-by shootings and suicide bombings, including in Raqqa, the former capital of Isil’s caliphate, and Hajin, another town on the same stretch of the Euphrates as Baghuz. SDF commanders have warned they will require continued Western support to suppress the threat.
Many of the movement’s most powerful leaders remain unaccounted for. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the Isil founder who proclaimed himself caliph in 2014, almost certainly left Baghuz several weeks ago. He is believed to be hiding in a remote place, possibly in Iraq’s Anbar desert.
The Russian and Iranian backed Syrian government forces who hold the opposite bank of the Euphrates have not been involved in the offensive, but have reportedly shot several Isil members trying to escape across the river.
‘We’ve been fighting off counterattacks all day. But if the day is for them, the night is for us’