SDF Expels ISIS from Last East Syria Stronghold
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have captured
ISIS’ last remaining enclave in eastern Syria, announced the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights on Saturday.
The UK-based war monitoring group stated the last few hundred
terrorists, many of them foreigners, had surrendered in the past two days to
the US-backed SDF.
It said some militants may still be hiding in underground
tunnels.
With the help of US air strikes, the SDF has battled to
crush ISIS in the shrinking Baghouz enclave east of the Euphrates river near
the Iraqi border.
"Large numbers" of civilians remain in the area
prompting a fresh delay in a final advance, the SDF said Saturday.
"There are still civilians inside in large
numbers," spokesman Adnan Afrin told AFP.
"We weren’t expecting this number, otherwise we
wouldn’t have resumed the campaign four days ago. This is why it’s been
delayed," he added.
Saturday’s development came shortly after US President
Donald Trump said he had “a lot of great announcements having to do with Syria
and our success with the eradication” of ISIS over the next 24 hours.
