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A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 18 February 2019

‘Taking their last breath’: IS hides among Syrian civilians

By SARAH EL DEEB from underground tunnels,
Associated Press deploying female fighters
BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) — and launching counterof-
From a self-proclaimed ca- fensives that reclaimed
liphate that once spread many of the villages for
across much of Syria and weeks. Nearly 700 SDF fight-
Iraq, the Islamic State ers were killed in fighting
group has been knocked that left at least 1,300 mili-
back to a speck of land on tants and over 400 civilians
the countries’ shared bor- dead, according to the Syr-
der. In that tiny patch on ian Observatory for Human
the banks of the Euphrates Rights.
River, hundreds of militants “We will very soon bring
are hiding among civil- good news to the whole
ians under the shadow of world,” Ciya Furat, an SDF
a small hill — encircled by commander, said Saturday
forces waiting to declare at a news conference at
the territorial defeat of the the al-Omar Oil Field Base,
extremist group. miles from Baghouz.
A spokesman for the U.S.- But experts and U.S. de-
backed Syrian Democratic fense officials warn that IS
Forces fighting the militants still poses a major threat
said Sunday that the group and could regroup within
is preventing civilians from A Humvee drives in a village recently retaken from Islamic State militants by U.S.-backed Syrian six months if pressure is not
leaving the area, closing a Democratic Forces (SDF) near Baghouz, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019. kept up.
corridor from which nearly Associated Press Thousands of IS fighters and
40,000 residents have man- selling tools and construc- alition officials screened sides. They have to give their families have emerged
aged to escape since De- tion material have sprung them. Women and children up.” in the past few months from
cember. up. were transferred to camps He added that the militants the group’s last enclave.
“They are taking their last For weeks, the militants miles away; men suspected are running out of ammuni- The SDF is holding 900 for-
breath,” said Dino, an SDF fought desperately for their of links to the militant group tion. eign fighters in lockups and
fighter deployed at a base shrinking territory. Once in were taken into custody at The capture of the last camps in northern Syria,
near the front line in the vil- control of about a third of other facilities. pocket of IS territory in ei- and their fate is a major
lage of Baghouz, about 2 Syria and Iraq, they now are SDF commanders said ther Syria or Iraq would concern, particularly as
kilometers (1¼ miles) from down to what SDF officials some of the hostages tak- mark the end of a four- U.S. troops prepare to with-
the militants’ last spot. describe as a small tented en from their force have year global campaign to draw from Syria. In a tweet
An Associated Press team village atop a network of been freed in recent days. crush the extremist group’s Sunday, U.S. President Don-
visited the base Sunday, tunnels and caves. But they Fighters at the base said so-called caliphate. It has ald Trump called on Britain,
escorted by the SDF, driv- are holding on to hundreds one of their colleagues was been a long and destruc- France and Germany and
ing past mostly one-story of civilians — some of them set free in the last two days. tive battle. In decline since other European countries
rural houses that were de- possibly hostages — taking Khatib Othman, an SDF 2016, the militant group was to take back their militants
stroyed, a reminder of the cover among them at the fighter, came back from stripped of its self-declared and put them on trial at
cost of the battle. Occa- edge of Baghouz, the vil- the front line a few days capital of Raqqa, in Syria, home.
sional airstrikes and artillery lage in eastern Deir el-Zour ago to take a break. His in the summer of 2017, leav- “The Caliphate is ready
rounds by the U.S.-led co- province. brother, also an SDF fighter, ing behind a destroyed city to fall,” Trump said. He
alition supporting the SDF, “Regrettably, Daesh have was taken hostage by IS in whose residents are still suggested the alterna-
meant to clear land mines closed all the roads,” pre- the last weeks of fighting. struggling to return. tive would be that the U.S.
for the advance, could be venting civilians from leav- He is now believed to be In Deir el-Zour, the SDF and would be forced to release
seen in the distance. ing, said Mustafa Bali, a held in Iraq as a suspected the coalition have battled them.
The road to the base passes spokesman for the Kurdish- militant and negotiations to uproot the militants from “We do so much, and
through a number of villag- led SDF, referring to IS by its are underway to free him. villages and towns on the spend so much - Time for
es and towns from which Arabic acronym. “We want to take revenge. eastern banks of the Eu- others to step up and do
IS were uprooted in recent The extremists may include We will not let the blood of phrates since September. the job that they are so
weeks. high-level commanders, our martyrs go to waste,” Battle-hardened militants, capable of doing. We are
In Hajin, a major center for and the presence of possi- Othman said. “We are including some of the pulling back after 100% Ca-
the militants that fell to the ble captives could explains waiting for the civilians to group’s leading fighters liphate victory!” he added.
SDF in December, some the slow final push, they go out, and we will go in and foreign commanders, The Kurdish forces and offi-
residents have begun to added. and attack. It is a matter of had taken refuge in the cials have said the same in
return but the town remains As civilians trickled out days. They are under siege, area between Syria and recent weeks, appealing to
battered by the fighting of the enclave in recent no food and no water. They Iraq. They fought back, dis- countries to take back their
and airstrikes. Small shops weeks, the SDF and co- are encircled from four patching suicide bombers militants.q