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Defeat of final Islamic State bastion in Syria imminent, Trump says
[IsraelTimes] Fighting in Baghouz appears to halt, signalling fall of city, but sleeper cells may continue to threaten resurgence of jihadist group.President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... said Wednesday the last pocket of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... ’s land in Syria will be liberated by US-backed forces "by tonight." Trump has previously announced the defeat of the group, but sleeper cells of fighters have re-emerged. With no signs of fighting Wednesday, however, the long-running battle to retake the group’s last outpost in eastern Syria appeared to have reached its conclusion. "The caliphate is gone as of tonight," Trump said in a speech at a factory in Lima, Ohio, where military tanks are assembled. The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State group’s self-declared caliphate, which at its height stretched across large parts of Syria and Iraq. Controlling territory gave it room to launch attacks around the world. During his speech, Trump held up two maps of Syria ‐ one covered in red representing territory held by the terror group when he was elected president in November 2016 and the other that had only a speck of red. "When I took over, it was a mess. They were all over the place ‐ all over Syria and Iraq," said Trump, who has said the US will keep 400 troops in Syria indefinitely. For the past four years, US-led forces have waged a destructive campaign against the group. But even after Baghouz’s fall, IS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten a continuing insurgency. The jihadists have been putting up a desperate fight, their notorious propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks and the encampment had proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels. The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of IS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out, exhausted, hungry and often maimed. The sheer number who emerged ‐ nearly 30,000 since early January, according to Kurdish officials ‐ took the Syrian Democratic Forces by surprise. Ciyager Amed, an official with the Kurdish-led SDF, said they were searching for any IS News Agency that Dare Not be Named journalists saw SDF soldiers loading women and kiddies into trailer trucks on the hilltop over Baghouz ‐ a sign that evacuations were still underway Wednesday. Black smoke was rising from the village. On Tuesday, the SDF seized control of the encampment held by IS after hundreds of Photo symbolising end of #ISIS territorial control in E. #Syria [TWITTER]
Posted by: trailing wife 2019-03-21 |
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