Coalition launches attack on last Daesh redoubt in Syria
As Kurdish forces attack from four sides, tunnels in Hajin allow terrorists to move undetected
The last vestige of Daesh territory in Syria came under attack as members of a US-backed coalition said yesterday that they had begun a final push to oust the militants from Hajin, the remaining sliver of territory under the group’s control in the region where it was born.
The assault is the final chapter of a war that began more than four years ago after Daesh seized enormous tracts of land in Iraq and Syria and declared a ‘caliphate’.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led militia that has been fighting Daesh in Syria with the United States and its allies, said in a statement that its forces had launched an offensive on the area from four sides on Monday evening.
The caliphate put Daesh on the map both physically and politically, filling its coffers and swelling its ranks both there and abroad, where adherents committed attacks in its name.
Even if it is defeated in Hajin, however, Daesh is likely to remain a powerful terrorist force.
Hajin does not look like much: On a bend of the Euphrates River in eastern Syria, it appears to have only a few major streets and just one public hospital. An estimated 60,000 people are believed to be living there and in a smattering of neighbouring villages.
Three months
The Syrian Democratic Forces is nevertheless preparing for a slog: between two and three months, according to one senior official with the militia.
Given Hajin’s size, that may seem a surprisingly long time. Daesh-held cities with populations one and a half to three times larger, including Sinjar and Tal Afar in Iraq, fell in days.
The difference is that in those battles, Daesh made a strategic retreat, choosing to abandon their positions to consolidate and regroup. This time, retreat is not an option.
“We expect a long and hard fight,” said Col. Sean J. Ryan, a spokesman for the US-led military coalition in Baghdad. “These are the diehard fighters with nowhere else to go.”
In its remaining slip of land, Daesh has dug tunnels. Its fighters, aerial surveillance indicates, have mined the circumference of their last redoubt, laying explosive devices on the roads leading into the area.
And to facilitate escape, they have buried large quantities of cash in berms of sand and hidden weapons and ammunition in caves and underground passages, strategically positioning resources in the desert, analysts say.
The tunnels allow the militants to move from house to house, undetected from the air. Some passageways connect outposts to their military bases, said one resident reached by telephone who requested anonymity for fear of retribution.
The forces fighting Daesh on the ground are a mix of Kurdish and Arab militias that have been working closely with an international coalition led by the United States to push back the group.
But driving Daesh from its territory alone will not be enough to bring about their long-term defeat, officials and analysts say. Daesh remains capable of wreaking damage around the world simply by inspiring adherents to take up a gun, a bomb or even a car. And in Iraq and Syria, the group has reverted to an insurgency.
“The easy part is done, which is removing Daesh from the cities it controlled,” said Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Now comes the hard part.” Throughout cleared areas, Daesh members are believed to have melted back into the population.