War Monitor: Isis ‘Breathing Its Last’ in East Syria

Isis terrorists based in east Syria are witnessing the terror group’s death throes as its territorial hold shrinks drastically in the oil-rich area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. More than four years after Isis overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq to declare a caliphate, it has lost all but a tiny patch in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border.

On Saturday, February 22nd, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia allied with the United States, started an offensive to expel Isis from the village of Baghouz, the only area still under its control in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province.

“Daesh (the Arabic acronym for Isis) is breathing its last in the area with its elements now hiding among civilians for protection,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel- Rahman said.

“They are now confined to camps in farmland located on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River,” the head of the UK-based war monitor told the German Press Agency (DPA).

An SDF commander, who goes by the name Adnan Afrin, noted that Isis remnants seem determined to resist until the end.

“In the past few days, Isis has used women fighters as suicide bombers against our advancing forces in order to delay our moves,” Afrin said of the east-based extremist group’s final twitches against a powerful SDF push backed by intense airstrikes by the anti-Isis international coalition.

On SDF evacuation of civilians in the area, Afrin also said more than 2,000 people were estimated to still be inside the Isis pocket of territory, but added that more trucks were on the way to bring them out. Once civilians are cleared from the zone, the SDF would expel the last Isis terrorists from Baghouz.

“When the civilians leave, we will see how many civilians and Isis fighters remain inside and what they want to do,” he said, according to the Guardian.

“They will be faced with a choice: war or surrender.”

It is worth noting that the radical group still has footholds in arid patches north of the city of al-Sukhna, nestled some 50 kilometres from Deir ez-Zor. Syria’s Kurds have played a major role in fighting Isis and freeing much of the territory that was under terrorist control in war-torn Syria.

The battle for Baghouz is now the only live front in Syria’s complex war, which has killed 360,000 people and displaced millions since 2011. Any SDF victory in the village would accelerate an expected withdrawal of US troops from Syria, announced in December by President Trump.

Kurdish forces, who have spearheaded the US-backed fight against Isis in Syria, have expressed fear that a full pull-out would leave them exposed to a long-threatened attack by neighbouring Turkey.

Source: War Monitor: Isis ‘Breathing Its Last’ in East Syria