The SDF, backed by US air power, has driven IS from
large swaths of territory it once controlled in
northern and eastern Syria, confining the extremists
to a small pocket of land near the border with Iraq.
Scores of IS fighters are now besieged in two
villages, or less than once percent of the self-styled
caliphate that once sprawled across large parts of
Syria and Iraq. In recent weeks, thousands of
civilians, including families of IS fighters, left the
area controlled by the extremists.
“The decisive battle began tonight to finish what
remains of Daesh terrorists,” Bali said, using an
Arabic acronym to refer to IS.
“The battle is very fierce,” he later told The
Associated Press. “Those remaining inside are the most
experienced who are defending their last stronghold.
According to this you can imagine the ferocity and
size of the fighting.”
Bali did not say how long they expect the battle to
last.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights, a war monitor, said SDF fighters are advancing
“cautiously” due to mines planted by IS gunmen. It
said US-led coalition warplanes are giving cover to
advancing SDF fighters.
US President Donald
Trump predicted Wednesday that IS will have lost
all of its territory by next week.
“It should be formally announced sometime, probably
next week, that we will have 100 percent of the
caliphate,” Trump told representatives of the
79-member, US-led coalition fighting IS.
US officials have said in recent weeks that IS has
lost 99.5 percent of its territory and is holding onto
fewer than five square kilometers in Syria, or less
than two square miles, where the bulk of the fighters
are concentrated. But activists and residents say IS
still has sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq, and is
laying the groundwork for an insurgency. The US
military has warned the group could stage a comeback
if the military and counterterrorism pressure on it is
eased.
The Observatory said that since the SDF began its
offensive against IS in the area on Sept. 10, some
1,279 IS gunmen and 678 SDF fighters have been killed.
It said 401 civilians, including 144 children and
teenagers, have been killed since then.
Earlier Saturday, IS militants attacked SDF
fighters near an oil field in the country’s east,
triggering airstrikes by the US-led coalition.
The Observatory said 12 IS gunmen attacked the SDF
and clashed with them for several hours until most of
the attackers were killed early Saturday. It said 10
attackers were killed, while two managed to flee.
Other activist collectives, including the Step news
agency, reported the attack, saying some of the
attackers used motorcycles rigged with explosives.