‘No choice for IS but surrender’

Jihadists defending their last patch of territory in Syria have no choice but to surrender, the Kurdish-led SDF said on Monday, ahead of a victory declaration expected within days.

The warning by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces comes as EU foreign ministers were scheduled to meet to discuss the repatriation of European nationals in Syria, which Germany said would be extremely difficult to do.

The Kurdish-led authorities in north Syria said on Monday they would not free foreign Islamic State detainees but countries must take responsibility for them, after US President Donald Trump said jihadists would be freed unless Europe took them back.

Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of foreign relations in the Kurdish-led region, said about 800 foreign fighters were being held in prisons, along with about 700 wives and 1,500 children in camps for the displaced. Dozens more detainees and relatives were pouring in.

He described detainees as a time bomb, as fighters could escape if the Kurdish-led autonomous area were attacked.

The diehard IS fighters are now trapped in their last patch of territory of less than 500m² in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border.

The SDF are moving cautiously on the jihadist holdout, saying IS was increasingly using civilians as human shields to block the advance.

“The clashes are sporadic and very limited,” SDF spokesperson Mustefa Bali said. “So far there have been no significant changes on the ground,” he said, with coalition warplanes reducing air strikes on IS positions over the past two days.

The SDF was still working on trying to get civilians out, he said.

Thousands of people have streamed out of the so-called Baghouz pocket in recent weeks, but no civilians have made it out in days after IS blocked escape routes.

An informed source, who cannot be named, said holdout IS fighters were seeking safe passage to the jihadist-held city of Idlib in northwestern Syria.

“They want to take the remaining civilians with them as human shields. But the SDF are not willing to discuss this option,” the source said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the SDF had turned down the request.

“They are besieged in a very tight area and have no choice but to surrender,” an SDF commander said.