U.S.-backed Syrian force attacks final ISIL enclave

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U.S.-backed forces launched their final attack on Friday to evict ISIL from its last pocket of control in the war-torn country and seal four years of international efforts to repel a "caliphate" that redrew the map of the Middle East.

Though the fall of Baghouz, an eastern Syrian village, would mark a milestone in the campaign against the jihadists, they are still a threat for using guerrilla tactics and holding some desolate land further west.

ISIL followers and fighters fell back to Baghouz as the group was gradually pushed out of its territory, including its twin capitals of Mosul and Raqqa, in 2017.

Men and boys suspected of being ISIL group fighters wait to be searched by members of Syrian Democratic Forces after leaving Baghouz, March 1, 2019. /VCG Photo

Thousands of them have poured out of the enclave over the last few weeks, an evacuation that held up the final assault.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) removed the last batch of non-combatants and then moved in at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), said Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF media office.

"Nothing remains in Baghouz except for terrorists. The battle will not end until the elimination of Daesh and the liberation of the village," said Bali, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL.

Convoy of vehicles is seen near Baghouz, February 12, 2019. /VCG Photo

"We expect a fierce and heavy battle," he said.

Baghouz, which lies on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border, was the last populated territory held by the jihadists, who have been steadily driven by an array of enemies from land they once held, which at its height was estimated about the size of the UK.

The SDF commander-in-chief said on Thursday that his force would declare victory within a week. He was later contradicted by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said the SDF had retaken 100 percent of the territory once held by ISIL.

A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces walks alongside women waiting with children fleeing the battered Baghouz, February 12, 2019. /VCG Photo

Bali said the final batch of civilians had been evacuated from Baghouz on Friday ahead of renewed military activity.

The United Nations said at least 84 people, two-thirds of them children, had died since December on their way to a camp in northeastern Syria where thousands of people have been taken after leaving the shrinking ISIL area.

Syrian children walk together in the mud past tents at a camp for the displaced near the village of Shamarin, near the border with Turkey in the northern Aleppo province, January 11, 2019. /VCG Photo

More than two million boys and girls are currently out of school in Syria, people's resources are depleting, and more than eight in ten people live below the poverty line, the UN Humanitarian Needs Overview for Syria said on Friday.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said at a regular briefing that the 2019 overview is a reminder that the crisis is far from over for millions of people in Syria who have lived through eight years of war.

More than 11 million people remain in need of some form of assistance, including for food, health care, shelter, water, sanitation, hygiene and even their livelihood, Dujarric said.

Source(s): Reuters ,Xinhua News Agency