Small Wars Journal

Hundreds Streaming Out of Last ISIS Stronghold as Extremists Face Military Defeat

Thu, 02/14/2019 - 12:15am

Hundreds Streaming Out of Last ISIS Stronghold as Extremists Face Military Defeat by Louisa Loveluck – Washington Post

Hundreds of people have trudged out of the Islamic State’s last stronghold since Tuesday, surrendering to U.S.-backed forces before their final assault to capture the only village still in the militants’ hands.

 

Some of the Islamic State’s most die-hard fighters are pinned down in Baghouz, a remote hamlet nestled on a bend of the Euphrates River close to the Iraqi border. There is only one path out of what they once called the caliphate, snaking through the green grass and flowers of eastern Syria. No longer spanning an area the size of Britain, their territory is now visible in its entirety from hills that surround it, covering no more than a square mile.

 

After three days of fighting, the combat quieted — with a lull in artillery fire and U.S. airstrikes — as the U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces gave the village’s remaining inhabitants a chance to flee or give themselves up.

 

More than 1,200 people had accepted the offer since Tuesday, American aid workers said, walking miles in the darkness toward the SDF militia fighters on the other side of a hill — and on to an uncertain future. Among those departing the village were defeated foot soldiers of the Islamic State…

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