U.S.-backed Syrian fighters advance against ISIS holdouts
OUTSIDE BAGHOUZ, Syria — The ground assault into the last area held by the Islamic State group intensified Saturday as U.S.backed Syrian fighters made “remarkable progress” amid heavy clashes, including the capture of a hill overlooking a tent encampment for the extremists, officials with the Kurdish-led forces said.
The capture of the last pocket still held by Islamic State fighters in Baghouz village would mark the end of a devastating four-year global campaign to end the extremist group's hold on territory in Syria and Iraq — their so-called caliphate that at the height of the group's power in 2014 con- trolled nearly a third of both Iraq and Syria.
Since the last push by the Syrian Democratic Forces began Friday night, the Kurdish-led force has been advancing slowly on two fronts as the extremists used snipers and booby traps to slow the push on the last area they control, SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said.
He added that extremists tried to detonate a suicide car bomb against advancing fighters but the attempt failed.
Bali tweeted that “heavy clashes” were taking place in the area on the east bank of the Euphrates River. Later in the day, he tweeted that heavy fighting contin- ued at outskirts of Baghouz, adding that “SDF made a remarkable progress since yesterday evening (and) recaptured many positions from ISIS.”
The military campaign to uproot the militants from the eastern banks of the Euphrates began in September, pushing them down toward this last corner in the village of Baghouz, near the Iraqi border. The military operation was halted on Feb. 12 as the SDF said a large number of civilians and hostages were holed up in the territory, which sits atop caves and tunnels where they had been hiding.
“We expect it to be over soon,” Bali said.