IS forces surrender to U.s.-backed fighters in Syria

AL-OMAR OIL FIELD BASE,

Syria — Islamic State group militants, many of them foreigners, surrendered to U.s.-backed fighters in eastern Syria on Wednesday, bringing the Kurdish-led force closer to taking full control of the last remaining area controlled by the extremists, a Kurdish official and activists said.

Çiyager Amed, an official with the Syrian Democratic Forces, confirmed that a number of IS fighters who had been holed up in Baghouz gave themselves up, without giving numbers. He said most of those remaining were Iraqis and foreigners and that few civilians remained in the tiny area still controlled by IS, although women and children continued to trickle out of the enclave.

The capture of Baghouz and nearby areas would mark the end of a devastating four-year global campaign against the extremist group. U.S. President Donald Trump has said the group is all but defeated and announced in December that he would withdraw all American forces from Syria.

Amed said the operation was slowed down due to the militants’ use of civilians as human shields.

Mustafa Bali, an SDF spokesman, said hundreds of women and children came out Wednesday.

Bali also said the fighters who remained appeared to be among the IS elite who have lots of experience and are fighting “fiercely.”

“They also don’t have other options. Either to surrender or die,” he said. He said the women and children coming out are treated as civilians “even if they are families of Daesh.” He used an Arabic acronym to refer to the group.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syria war monitor, and Omar Abu Laila, who runs the Deirezzor 24 group that monitors developments in the eastern province of Deir el-zour where the fighting is ongoing, said more than 200 IS fighters, many of them foreigners, surrendered.