{"id":8980,"date":"2019-02-17T08:52:14","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T00:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=8980"},"modified":"2019-02-17T08:52:16","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T00:52:16","slug":"last-daesh-holdout-on-verge-of-defeat-in-east-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=8980","title":{"rendered":"Last Daesh holdout on verge of defeat in east Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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SDF battle commander Ciya Furat (C) answers the press near the Omar oil field in the eastern Syrian Deir al-Zor province on February 16, 2019. Photo courtesy Fadel Senna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NEAR BAGHOUZ<\/g>, Syria\/BEIRUT, Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) \u2014 The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces will capture Daesh\u2019s last enclave in eastern Syria “in a very short time”, the battle commander said Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victory will bring the militant group, whose self-proclaimed caliphate once stretched across swathes of Syria and Iraq, to the brink of total territorial defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ciya Furat said the SDF had cornered the remaining Daesh militants in one tiny neighborhood of Baghouz village, under its fire from all sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In a very short time, not longer than a few days, we will officially announce the end of Daesh’s existence,” Furat said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and special forces, the SDF, led by the Kurdish YPG militia, has marched into the pocket east of the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostly foreign militants are making their last stand in Baghouz, SDF officials say. Thousands of civilians have streamed out escaping the violence this week alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furat, the SDF offensive’s commander, said Daesh only held 700 square meters now. But his fighters were moving cautiously because of civilians and hostages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Thousands of civilians are still trapped there as human shields,” he said. “In the coming few days, in a very short time, we will spread the good tidings to the world of the military end of Daesh.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, he added the SDF would soon move to the next phase of “chasing down sleeper cells and remnants spread out across the region to secure it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokesperson Mustafa Bali told Reuters the SDF had caught several militants who tried to flee among the civilians while others had handed themselves over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SDF believes a few hundred militants may still be holed up in the enclave, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier the SDF had taken control of all of Baghouz after the militants still there surrendered. SDF officials denied this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. President Donald Trump said the White House will make an announcement about Syria and the fight against Daesh by Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria\/BEIRUT, Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) \u2014 The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces will capture Daesh\u2019s last enclave in eastern Syria “in a very short time”, the battle commander said Saturday. The victory will bring the militant group, whose self-proclaimed caliphate once stretched across swathes of Syria and Iraq, to the brink of total territorial defeat. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":8981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,297],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8980"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}