Small Wars Journal

U.S.-Backed Force Claims Control of Last ISIS-Held Town in Syria

Tue, 12/18/2018 - 11:52am

U.S.-Backed Force Claims Control of Last ISIS-Held Town in Syria by Richard Sisk - Military.com

The U.S.-backed and -trained Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) claimed over the weekend to have taken the small town of Hajin on the Syria-Iraq border in heavy fighting, ousting the Islamic State from its last urban enclave in Syria.

"There are still villages to be taken, but Hajin was the most important as it was the base for commanders from where they directed military operations," SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali told The Associated Press.

There was no immediate confirmation from the U.S. military, but Army Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), said in a statement Saturday that the months-long operation to take Hajin was "going very well," the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported…

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