Syria: A brutal assault continued on ISIL’s final enclave on Wednesday as thousands of fighters and their families flooded out of the attacked Syrian town of Baghouz.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the US-backed force fighting ISIL said the battle was as good as over and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) faces near defeat. ISIS fighters near the Iraqi border have been giving up in large numbers after a brutal attack on their enclave.
The SDF and the coalition hit the enclave at night to flush out the fighters. “The objective of our advance is to terrorise IS fighters so they surrender, and for the civilians to come out,” said SDF commander.
The enclave is the last bit of territory held by ISIL soldiers who have been driven from roughly one-third of Iraq and Syria over the past four years.
The number of ISIL members who had surrendered has risen to 3,000, said SDF official Mustafa Bali on Twitter. Three Yazidi women and four children held captive were rescued, he added.
Number of Daesh members surrendered to us since yesterday evening has risen to 3000. 3 Yazidi women and 4 children were rescued, too.
— Mustafa Bali (@mustefabali) March 12, 2019
“Once our forces confirm that everyone who wants to surrender has done so the clashes will resume, the group’s defeat was very near,” Bali added.
ISIL/ISIS gained global prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive, followed by its capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre.
The group has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and many individual countries. It is widely known for its videos of beheadings and other types of executions.