The United States backed-Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will take control over the Islamic State’s last small enclave in the eastern Syria “in a very short time”, the SDF battle commander has confirmed on Saturday.
According to Reuters news reports, Jiya Furat, the battle commander, said the SDF has concerned about the remaining Islamic State groups militants in one of the small village, Baghouz, under its control from all the sides.
With full support from the American special troop forces and air strikes, the SDF which is led by the US-backed Kurdish YPG militia has recently marched into the region east of the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.
Mostly foreign jihadists were trying to make the last stand in Baghouz village, the SDF officials said. As many as hundreds of civilians have been streamed out escaping the increasing violence alone this week.
The SDF offensive’s commander Jiya Furat said that currently, the jihadists have held only 700 square meters. But the SDF fighters were moving cautiously due to the hostages and civilians in the Islamic State captivity.
Furat said, “The village is under the fire of our forces … but thousands of civilians are still trapped there as human shields. In the coming few days, in a very short time, we will spread the good tidings to the world of the military end of Daesh.”
UK-based war monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has earlier, said the SDF fighters taken control of Baghouz village after the jihadists there surrendered.