The United States-backed Syrian Defence Forces (SDF) has on Friday launched an attack to evict Islamic State (IS) from its very-last territorial bastion and sealed four years of the international efforts to roll back “caliphate” that would redraw the map of the Middle East, Syria.
According to Reuters news reports, the IS followers and fighters have fallen back to Baghouz as the groups were forced to leave to evacuate from its territory. Thousands of them had been yet evacuated since the last few weeks, helping the final assault. Baghouz was the last populated territory held by the jihadists
The US-backed SDF has evacuated the last batch of non-combatants and moved in at around 6 pm, said the SDF media office head Mustafa Bali.
Bali said the final batch of civilians had been evacuated from Baghouz on Friday ahead of renewed military activity.
Bali told Reuters, “Nothing remains in Baghouz except for terrorists. The battle … will not end until the elimination of Daesh and the liberation of the village.”
While adding that initial fighting has involved heavy weapons, Bali said, “We expect a fierce and heavy battle.”
The SDF commander-in-chief on Thursday said, his force would soon declare victory over IS within a week. Later, he was contradicted by the US President Donald Trump, saying the SDF had already taken 100 per cent of the territory once held by the IS.