ZCZC
BFF-41
SYRIA-CONFLICT
Syria force braces for new outflux from last IS village
NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria, March 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US-backed Syrian forces
prepared for another outpouring of civilians and suspected jihadists Thursday
from the remnants of the Islamic State group’s “caliphate”, which is
teetering on the brink of total collapse.
A fierce assault on the besieged enclave in eastern Syria has sparked an
exodus of dust-covered children, veiled women dragging suitcases and
dishevelled, wounded men from the village of Baghouz.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are waiting for more survivors to
trickle out before dealing what they hope will be a final blow to jihadists
holed-up in a makeshift camp along the banks of the Euphrates.
The SDF was not actively advancing Thursday, out of concern for remaining
civilians, but its fighters entered the settlement two days earlier and
control a chunk of it, an SDF source told AFP.
Remaining families have been pushed towards the far end of the camp near
the river, he said.
More than 7,000 people have exited the enclave over the past three days,
mostly women and children.
The operation to smash the last pocket of the “caliphate” that IS leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed in 2014 had resumed on Friday after a long
humanitarian pause.
The deluge of fire unleashed by SDF artillery and coalition air strikes at
the weekend appears to have taken a toll on the diehard jihadists and
relatives still inside.
– Blood bags –
Many emerged on Wednesday wounded and using crutches.
One bearded man gripped the handle of a half-full blood bag attached to
his body, as he trudged across a field to reach an SDF screening point.
Around him, a solemn procession of bearded men led by armed guards filed
slowly towards US-led coalition troops for processing.
Around a tenth of the nearly 58,000 people who have fled the last IS
bastion since December were jihadists trying to slip back into civilian life,
according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war
monitor.
They have emerged into the spotlight of the international media for the
first time.
IS fighters had previously managed to secure passage out of their former
strongholds before US-backed forces recaptured the territory.
Remaining jihadists, however, are now surrounded on all sides, with Syrian
government forces and their allies on the west bank of the Euphrates blocking
any escape across the river and Iraqi government forces preventing any move
downstream.
A senior SDF officer said 400 jihadists were captured on Tuesday night as
they attempted to slip out of Baghouz in an escape he said was organised by a
network that had planned to smuggle them to remote hideouts.
– Life-changing injuries –
While suspected jihadists are transferred to Kurdish-run detention
centres, their relatives are trucked to camps for the displaced further
north.
An AFP correspondent on Thursday saw more than 10 truckloads of people
leaving an SDF screening point en route to the camps, a day after hundreds
steamed out of Baghouz.
Around 4,000 people arrived from Baghouz to the Al-Hol camp on Wednesday,
pushing the camp’s population to over 60,000, according to the International
Rescue Committee.
Many are wounded or in poor physical shape after living for weeks without
much food and hiding from bombs in underground shelters.
“Many of the arrivals are in a very weak condition or have life-changing
injuries” Misty Buswell of the IRC said.
“Particularly vulnerable are the many heavily pregnant women as well as
mothers with newborns”.
The battle against IS is now the main front of the Syrian war, which has
claimed more than 360,000 lives since 2011.
The capture of Baghouz would mark the end of IS territorial control in the
region and deal a death blow to the “caliphate” proclaimed in 2014, which
once covered huge swathes of Syria and Iraq.
At its peak more than four years ago, the proto-state created by IS was
the size of the United Kingdom and administered millions of people.
It effectively collapsed in 2017 when IS lost most of its major cities in
both countries.
The loss of Baghouz, which the SDF says is only days away, would carry
mostly symbolic value.
The group remains a potent force in both Syria and Iraq, where it carries
out deadly attacks.
In Syria, it maintains a presence in the vast Badiya desert and has
claimed attacks in SDF-held territory.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1845HRS