DEIR EZZOR: Kurdish-led troops launched a final assault on Friday against diehard Daesh fighters clinging to the last sliver of their “caliphate” in eastern Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) resumed their offensive after plucking a last batch of civilians from the riverside village of Baghouz where the militants are holed up.
“Nothing remains in Baghouz except for terrorists. The battle … will not end until the elimination of Daesh and the liberation of the village,” SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said. “We expect a fierce and heavy battle.”
A few dozen women, children and elderly men were evacuated from Baghouz on Friday and taken by truck to a screening center. Their number was in sharp decline from the thousands who had been pouring out of the Daesh-held pocket in recent days.
Wearing an orange hoodie and a long beige raincoat, one man knelt on the rocky ground, surrounded by armed SDF fighters. Other men were patted down and had their belongings searched.
Facing airstrikes from the US-led coalition, Daesh fighters who have been besieged for weeks are unlikely to resist for long. The SDF expects to declare victory in one week.
The Daesh enclave at Baghouz, a tiny pocket on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, is the last populated territory held by the militants, who have been steadily driven by an array of enemies from swaths of land they once held.
Nevertheless, the group remains a security threat, using guerrilla tactics and holding some territory in a remote area west of the Euphrates.
