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‘Heavy fighting’ in Baghouz as Trump declares ISIS defeated
[Rudaw] The crack of machine gun fire and the thud of Arclight airstrikes to the east of Baghouz, Syria belied a claim from US 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...
in Florida that 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) so-called caliphate was finished.

"So here is ISIS on election day. Here’s ISIS right now. If you look ‐ so there’s ISIS. And that’s what we have right now, as of last night," Trump told news hounds on arrival in Palm Beach, Florida on Friday, showing maps of the region that indicated ISIS no longer controlled any territory.

White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders also said "the territorial caliphate has been eliminated in Syria."

That claim does not reflect the reality on the ground. "Heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy...
continues around mount Baghouz right now to finish off whatever remains of ISIS," tweeted Mustafa Bali, head of the media office of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who are battling ISIS.

Reporters on the ground also contradicted Trump’s claim.

"Another airstrikes [sic] now, tracers, heavy machine gun fire on eastern end of Baghouz. I guess not everyone heard the White House statement re 100 elimination of ISIS territory," tweeted CNN’s Ben Wedeman.

He added that "hundreds" of snuffies were still fighting, according to the SDF.

The battle to defeat the snuffies in their last major holdout has played out over weeks because of the unexpected presence of tens of thousands of people ‐ including many women and kiddies ‐ in the small area.

Friday morning, the SDF said they had engaged with ISIS snuffies in "several points" and the US-led international coalition conducted a number of airstrikes.
Al Arabiya adds:
President Donald Trump said Friday "it's about time" that the group no longer controls territory in the region, after a campaign by US and coalition forces that spanned five years and two US presidencies, unleashed more than 100,000 bombs, and killed untold numbers of civilians.
Posted by: trailing wife 2019-03-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=537095