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| SDF fight to retake final ISIS holdout in Syria’s Baghouz – reports | |
| 2019-02-21 | |
| [Rudaw] Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are fighting to retake the village of Baghouz in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, which would liberate the final stretch of territory controlled by 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.... jihadist group. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the SDF reached a deal with ISIS in Baghouz. Earlier, AFP saw 15 trucks leaving the village thought to be carrying women and kiddies. Rudaw news hounds in Syria confirmed the convoy carried 1,500 civilians to camps. However some fighting continues. Adnan Afrin, a SDF spokesperson told AFP "there are sporadic and limited festivities on some axes". The US operation tweeted it can't confirm if ISIS fighters are surrendering, but "the most hardened ISIS fighters still remain in Baghuz." Locals are anxiously awaiting a future free of ISIS where the self-governing TEV-DEM in Rojava find a solution with Damascus and end militarization in their cities. The final moments of the ISIS ‘caliphate’
“The ISIS terrorist organization is now sealed off in a small area. They’re surrounded in an area of 600-700 meters. ISIS is using civilian residents as a human shield. This is why we advance slowly. We don’t want civilians killed. We also have prisoners under ISIS. So far we have freed 10 of our own prisoners,” a SDF fighter told Rudaw. On Wednesday, it is increasingly apparent that soon a declaration of the total defeat of ISIS will come. “For three days we’ve been advancing. They hit back to stop our advance. I was hit in the arm by a shrapnel. But ISIS is finished. They have no force left,” said an SDF fighter. Thousands of civilians, mainly women and children, have fled the last battlefield. Most of those fleeing are foreign nationals. “Here we receive the refugees. There are 45 people here right now. Sometimes it reaches 400 in a day. But in total we have registered 28,000 so far. We have Iraqis, Syrians, and others. But the people of Baghuz are few. Maybe 5 percent,” said a worker at a camp. They trickle from different directions into SDF-controlled areas. “We tried to get out of there many times, but they didn’t let us. They had placed mines everywhere. Our neighbors fled but they stepped on landmines and lost their legs,” said one IDP. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |