SCENE IN BAGHOUZ, SYRIA, A HORROR FILM, WITNESS SAYS.
‘HORROR FILM’
OUTSIDE BAGHOUZ, SYRIA • Hundreds of people over the past two days streamed out of Baghouz, the last village held by ISIL, under steppedup assault the past four days by U.S.-backed forces. The latest wave of evacuations brings the final defeat of ISIL by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces one step closer — a milestone in the devastating fouryear campaign to defeat the group’s so-called “caliphate” that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq. Dorothee Maquere, the wife of a prominent French militant who joined ISIL and was killed in a mortar strike over the weekend, said the situation inside Baghouz was a “horror film,” saying there is a “massacre” inside, with constant shooting. People had to lay flat to avoid the crossfire, she said, adding that there were “no more homes, we live underground in tunnels and tents.” She said her 7-year-old daughter was killed and her other daughter wounded by an explosion two weeks ago. Two other sons were killed earlier in a mortar attack and Syrian government fire. Tuesday’s exodus came three days after U.S.-backed forces resumed their push on ISIL militants holed up in Baghouz. The assault had been slowed the previous week to allow thousands of civilians, including ISIL family members, to be evacuated from the tiny pocket of territory. Asked about the situation inside Baghouz, a Russian woman who came out with her three children responded in broken Arabic: “Fear.” She said her husband had died earlier. Another woman in her mid-20s, who identified herself as Reem from the central Syrian province of Hama, said she was waiting for her husband to come out of an ISIL-controlled jail. He has been there for months after killing an ISIL member in retaliation “for his baby daughter being killed in an airstrike,” she said.
“I haven’t seen him since and don’t know where he is,” Reem said
Earlier on Tuesday, SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted that about 3,000 people came out of Baghouz on Monday. They left through a humanitarian corridor established by the Kurdish-led forces for those who want to leave or surrender.
Since Feb. 20, more than 10,000 people have left the ISIL pocket and black-robed women with children in the backs of trucks could be seen passing through the corridor and heading into the desert. They were then whisked off to a camp for displaced people to the north, while suspected ISIL fighters were moved to detention facilities. Bali said a large number among those who left Monday were ISIL fighters who “surrendered to our forces.” It was unclear how many ISIL militants and civilians remained inside, but the number is now likely in the hundreds.