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US-backed force tracks Syria jihadists after ‘caliphate’ falls
BEIRUT, April 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A US-backed force said Tuesday it was
chasing Islamic State group jihadists in eastern Syria, as coalition
warplanes pound the militants more than a week after their “caliphate” was
declared defeated.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by warplanes of a US-led coalition,
dislodged IS fighters from their last redoubt in the village of Baghouz near
the Iraqi border on March 23, following a months-long offensive.
The US-backed alliance is now “tracking down remnants of the terrorist
group”, SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said on Tuesday.
“There are groups hiding in caves overlooking Baghouz,” he said.
The US-led coalition said it was supporting sweeping operations with air
strikes on jihadist hideouts.
“The Syrian Democratic Forces continues to deny Daesh a physical space and
influence in the area and work to deny them the resources they need to
return,” coalition spokesman Scott Rawlinson told AFP on Monday, using an
Arabic acronym for IS.
“In support of back-clearance operations, the coalition continues to
conduct precision strike support in coordination with SDF,” he said.
The official said anti-IS operations are now focusing on “eroding” IS’s
“capacity to regenerate and collaborate”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said
that more than a dozen coalition air strikes have targeted IS hideouts in
Baghouz since Sunday.
Strikes hit caves and farmlands in the village where holdout jihadists are
believed to be hiding, it said.
IS fighters also retain a presence in Syria’s vast Badia desert and various
other hideouts, and have continued to claim deadly attacks in SDF-held
territory.
Last week, IS killed seven US-backed fighters in an attack on a checkpoint
in the northern city of Manbij, which is controlled by a local council linked
to the SDF.
The Observatory on Tuesday said that nine suspected jihadists were captured
in the former IS bastion of Raqa since Sunday.
The SDF has warned that a new phase has begun in anti-IS operations,
following the defeat of the jihadist proto-state.
They appealed for sustained coalition assistance to help smash sleeper
cells.
The “caliphate” proclaimed in mid-2014 by fugitive IS supremo Abu Bakr al-
Baghdadi started collapsing in 2017 when parallel offensives in Iraq and
Syria wrested back its main urban hubs — Mosul and Raqa.
The nearly five years of fighting against the most brutal jihadist group in
modern history left major cities in ruins and populations homeless.
BSS/AFP/RY/1645 hrs