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U.S.-backed Syrian force attacks final IS enclave

02 March 2019 03:56 (UTC +04:00)

U.S.-backed forces launched an attack on Friday to evict Islamic State from its last territorial bastion and seal four years of international efforts to roll back a “caliphate” that redrew the map of the Middle East, ONA reports quoting Reuters.

While the fall of Baghouz, an eastern Syrian village on the bank of the Euphrates River, would mark a milestone in the campaign against the jihadists, they are still a threat, using guerrilla tactics and holding some desolate land further west.

Islamic State (IS) followers and fighters fell back to Baghouz as the group was gradually pushed out of its territory, including its twin capitals of Mosul and Raqqa, in 2017.

Thousands of them have poured out of the enclave over the last few weeks, an evacuation that held up the final assault.