SDF to complete removal of civilians from Baghouz
▶ The decision to re-open the UAE’s embassy was crucial to counter foreign meddling
The US-backed Syrian forces waging the final battle against ISIS in Baghouz said it hoped on Thursday to complete the removal of people who wanted to leave the last sliver of the group’s territory.
The Syrian Democratic Forces has laid siege to the area but is waiting for all civilians to leave before launching the final offensive to liberate the enclave.
Thousands of people, civilians and fighters, have streamed out of Baghouz in recent weeks, overwhelming the camps that holds those fleeing.
Many ISIS fighters surrendered after the enclave suffered shortages of food, water and medical supplies.
“The evacuation operations will continue today [Thursday] too and we hope they will be completed,” SDF commander Adnan Afrin said.
After a long humanitarian pause, the offensive to retake the area was resumed last Friday, but the advance was stalled by ISIS resistance and the presence of more civilians in the area.
According to the SDF, scores of ISIS fighters left Baghouz on Thursday.
They were screened and searched for concealed weapons and explosives.
The men were divided into three groups: Syrians, Iraqis and other nationalities.
The battle for Baghouz is significant, because when the town falls it will mean the end of the ISIS state project announced by the group’s leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, in July 2014.
In the past four and a half years, battles raged across Iraq and Syria to wrestle territory back from the group and this tiny pocket in Baghouz is the last vestige of an ISIS-held territory that was once the size of Jordan.
But not all of the ISIS fighters in Baghouz are surrendering, with hundreds caught on Thursday trying to escape
Not all of the ISIS fighters in Baghouz are surrendering. About 400 were captured trying to leave the enclave alongside smugglers
from the area. About 400 fighters were captured trying to leave Baghouz alongside smugglers, a senior SDF commander said.
A group of women being removed from Baghouz on Wednesday shouted out in defiance as they gathered near a checkpoint where the SDF were searching them, and one of the women hit a journalist with a can of tuna.
Among those who came out on Wednesday were 11 captive children from the Yazidi community.
ISIS subjected the Yazidis to mass slaughter and enslavement in what the United Nations described as a genocide, after the group overran the community’s heartland of Sinjar in 2014.
Four Shiite children abducted from Tel Afar four years ago were also freed and the SDF would try to reunite them with their parents, said Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the USbacked forces.
Some fighters are also still hiding out in remote desert areas or have gone underground to wage a guerrilla insurgency.
As western countries ponder what to do with their nationals who have fought for ISIS and left the group’s territory, many of them now languishing in Kurdish prisons, Sweden offered a new proposal on Thursday.
It floated the idea of an international tribunal to try foreign fighters who have fought alongside the group in Syria.
Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson said he saw “great advantages to be able to convict those who have committed crimes” in connection with the fighting.
He said on Thursday after a meeting of the European Union’s Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels, “here is a situation where I believe we can use the same model” as the international tribunals that investigated the atrocities in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
The Swedish plan had not been discussed.
Other countries have chosen to pass their nationals on to Iraq, allowing them to be prosecuted through the Iraqi judicial system for crimes committed on Iraqi territory.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said last week that Baghdad could help to transfer foreign fighters from Syria to his country to face trial because of concerns about their trials taking place under the Syrian Kurds, who are a nonstate actor and do not have a fully legitimate legal system.
The UAE has confirmed its intention to “ensure Syria returns to the Arab region”, in the words of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation. On Wednesday, during a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Sheikh Abdullah shed light on the country’s decision to re-open its embassy in Damascus last December. Simply put, this gesture was not intended to legitimise Bashar Al Assad’s continued rule after years of war, nor to condone the actions of his regime, but rather to ensure Arab voices are heard in discussions about Syria’s future. With Mr Al Assad reclaiming almost all Syrian territory, a new phase has begun in the seven-year war. And with different powers vying for influence, Arab states are determined to protect Syria’s territorial integrity.
ISIS has been all but defeated in eastern Syria. All that is left of the so-called caliphate is the tiny pocket of Baghouz, where the terror group is fighting its last battle against the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces. The US-led international coalition has hastened the group’s demise and provided the SDF with support and protection. But given President Donald Trump’s clear intention to withdraw most – if not all – US troops from Syria, a power vacuum is bound to open, into which various regional actors will certainly hope to lurch. Russia has backed Mr Al Assad for years with military intervention and is partly responsible for keeping him in power. Meanwhile, Iran-backed forces, including Lebanese Hezbollah, have fought alongside the regime, expanding Tehran’s influence in the country. Turkey, too, has become a key belligerent, taking military action against the Kurds in northern Syria.
Arab nations must ensure their voices are heard in post-war Syria. Otherwise, distant powers are bound to cement their influence over the divided country, undermining peace efforts and Syrian sovereignty and possibly exacerbating ethnic, religious and political divides. Damascus was expelled from the Arab League in 2011 for its brutal response to protests, a gesture that failed to halt the nation’s descent into war. Today, Arab nations are considering Syria’s readmission to the League – an effort that is not intended to normalise relations with Mr Al Assad, but to open possible avenues for stabilising the country. The UAE’s decision to reopen its embassy in Damascus constituted a step towards stabilisation, in the form of a benevolent diplomatic presence in a country beset by rival powers seeking their own interests.