ISIS said to hold civilians in last patch of Syria turf
BAGHOUZ, Syria — Islamic State militants are preventing more than 1,000 civilians from leaving a tiny area still held by the extremist group in a village in northeastern Syria, a spokesman for the U. S.- backed Syrian militia fighting the group said Sunday.
“Regrettably, Daesh have closed all the roads,” said Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish- led Syrian Democratic Forces, referring to the Islamic State by its Arabic acronym.
From a self- proclaimed caliphate that once spread across much of Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State has been knocked back to a speck of land on the countries’ shared border on the banks of the Euphrates River. Hundreds of militants are hiding among civilians under the shadow of a small hill — encircled by forces waiting to declare the territorial defeat of the extremist group.
An Associated Press team visited a base near Baghouz on Sunday, escorted by members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, driving past mostly one- story rural houses that were destroyed. Occasional airstrikes and artillery rounds
by the U. S.- led coalition supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces, meant to clear land mines for the advance, could be seen in the distance.
The road to the base passes through a number of villages and towns from which Islamic State militants were uprooted in recent weeks.
In Hajin, a major center for the militants that fell to the Syrian Democratic Forces in December, some residents have begun to return, though the town remains battered by the fighting and airstrikes. Small shops selling tools and construction material have sprung up.
For weeks, the militants fought desperately for their shrinking territory. Once in control of about a third of Syria and Iraq, they now are down to what Syrian Democratic Forces officials describe as a small tented village atop a network of tunnels and caves. But they are holding on to hundreds of civilians — some of them possibly hostages — taking cover among them at the edge of Baghouz, the village in eastern Deir el- Zour province.
The extremists may include high- level commanders, and the presence of possible captives could explain the slow final push, members of the Syrian Democratic Forces said.
As civilians trickled out of the enclave in recent weeks, the Syrian Democratic Forces and coalition officials screened them. Women and children were transferred to camps miles away; men suspected of links to the militant group were taken into custody at other facilities.
Syrian Democratic Forces commanders said some of the hostages taken from their force have been freed in recent days. Fighters at the base said one of their colleagues was set free in the previous two days.
Khatib Othman, a Syrian Democratic Forces fighter, returned from the front line a few days ago to take a break.
His brother, also a Syrian Democratic Forces fighter, was taken hostage by Islamic State militants in recent weeks. He is now believed to be held in Iraq as a suspected militant, and negotiations are underway to free him.
“We want to take revenge. We will not let the blood of our martyrs go to waste,” Othman said. “We are waiting for the civilians to go out, and we will go in and attack. It is a matter of days. They are under siege, no food and no water. They are encircled from four sides. They have to give up.”
He added that the militants are running out of ammunition.
The capture of the last pocket of Islamic State territory in Syria would mark the end of a four- year global campaign to crush the extremist group’s so- called caliphate. It has been a long and destructive battle. In decline since 2016, the militant group was stripped of its self- declared capital of Raqqa, Syria, in the summer of 2017, leaving behind a destroyed city whose residents are still struggling to return.
“We will very soon bring good news to the whole world,” Ciya Furat, a Syrian Democratic Forces commander, said Saturday at a news conference at the al-Omar oil field base, miles from Baghouz.
But experts and U. S. defense officials warn that the militants still pose a major threat and could regroup within six months if pressure is not kept up.
In a tweet late Saturday, President Donald Trump called on Britain, France, Germany and other European countries to take back their militants and put them on trial at home.
“The Caliphate is ready to fall,” Trump said. He suggested the alternative is that the U. S. would be forced to release them.
“We do so much, and spend so much - Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing. We are pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory!” he added.
The Kurdish forces and officials have said the same in recent weeks, appealing to countries to take back militants
from their countries.
Bali, the Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman, declined to comment on Trump’s statement.
ASSAD SPEAKS
Syrian President Bashar Assad said Sunday that only the Syrian state can protect groups in the northern part of the country and that the army will “liberate every inch of Syria” from foreign troops.
He did not specifically mention the planned withdrawal of 2,000 American troops from northern Syria, but in a televised speech in Damascus he said no one should bet on protection from the Americans.
He appeared to be referring to U. S.- allied Kurdish fighters in the north who fear a Turkish assault once American troops withdraw from northeastern Syria. The U. S. has partnered with the local Kurdish militias in the fight against the Islamic State. With the extremists on the verge of territorial defeat in Syria, Trump has said he wants U. S. troops to leave in the coming months.
Trump’s announcement has raised fears that Turkey may soon be able to launch an offensive on the Kurdish fighters. Turkey considers the Syria- based People’s Protection Units a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders.
Assad suggested the U. S. had sold out its Kurdish partners, adding that the Syrian army will return to the area after the American troop pullout.
“To those groups who are betting on the Americans, we say the Americans will not protect you. … The Americans will put you in their pockets to be used as bargaining tools,” he said.
“Every inch of Syria will be liberated, and any intruder is an enemy,” Assad added.
Speaking confidently about the Syrian army’s advances on the ground, Assad called on refugees around the world to return to the country.
CHEMICAL ATTACKS
The Syrian government and affiliated forces have launched more than 300 attacks using chemical weapons during the country’s nearly eight- year conflict, a report said Sunday.
The findings by the Berlinbased Global Public Policy Institute offer the most comprehensive record to date of presumed chemical weapons use in Syria, where the long war appears to be winding down.
The tally by the policy group also could be cited as part of any possible international war- crimes cases against the regime of Assad.
The Global Public Policy Institute said it had “credibly substantiated” 336 uses of chemical weapons, such as nerve agents and crude but dangerous chlorine bombs.
Almost all the attacks — 98 percent — were attributed to Assad’s military or allied forces, including loyalist militias known as the Tiger Forces that also have the backing of Russia. The rest of the attacks were attributed to the Islamic State.
The institute’s analysis begins Dec. 23, 2012. But the vast majority of the attacks it cites took place after then- President Barack Obama’s 2013 declaration that use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians would be his administration’s red line.
The researchers said they based their findings on witness statements and post- attack analyses, including reports of the effects from the apparent chemical agents and how the weapons were delivered on the attack sites.
“The Assad regime did not merely ‘ get away’ with its use of these banned weapons,” said the report. “It succeeded in using them for strategic ends.”
In the aftermath of a 2013 nerve agent attack on a Damascus suburb, Obama pulled U. S. warplanes back from the brink after a last- minute deal that was meant to force Assad to relinquish his chemical stockpiles.
More than 72 tons were destroyed, but the attacks did not stop. The institute’s report said many of the subsequent attacks used chlorine, which turns into hydrochloric acid when inhaled. Exposure can damage the victim’s respiratory system and can lead to death in some cases.
Trump has twice ordered military action against Syrian government targets in the wake of high- profile chemical attacks, one on the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun and the other in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
There has been no recorded use of chlorine weapons in Syria since a retaliatory U. S. missile strike on April 14.
According to the data, Syria’s army has consistently prioritized striking population centers over front lines, even in the face of defeat on the ground.
“The strategy worked,” said Tobias Schneider, who led the institute’s research team. “It’s hard to imagine other regimes facing similar challenges, looking at places like Sudan, are not studying the Syrian example closely.”