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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

IS blitzed into surrender as defeat looms

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Tony Gamal-Gabriel & Rouba El Husseini -


US-backed forces said on Wednesday the IS group was living its “final moments” after thunderous shelling on its last scrap of land in eastern Syria prompted 3,000 militants to surrender.


But the die-hard IS fighters who stayed to defend the remnants of their “caliphate” struck back with a wave of suicide bombings, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.


IS once ruled over millions in a swathe of Syria and Iraq, but it has since lost all that territory except for a riverside slither in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border. Thousands of men and women have poured out of the pocket in recent weeks, hampering an advance by the US-backed SDF, which has paused its offensive multiple times to allow evacuations.


Supported by air strikes by the US-led coalition against the militants, the SDF resumed artillery shelling on Sunday after warning holdout IS fighters their time to surrender was up. For three nights in a row, the Kurdish-led SDF unleashed a deluge of fire on militant outposts, engulfing their makeshift encampment in a ravaging blaze.


“IS’s final moments have started,” SDF official Jiaker Amed said.


Clashes continued on Wednesday morning as the SDF worked to thwart an IS counterattack launched in the early hours of the day, he said.


The official said the Kurd-led force was pounding militants with heavy artillery to hamper the offensive, which IS launched from several fronts following fierce clashes on Tuesday night.


“We are still countering the assault until this very moment,” he said.


“This could be their final attack.” An SDF fighter in Baghouz said IS was using “many suicide bombers” in its counterattack, which it launched after daybreak under cover of a sandstorm.


Inside Baghouz, the crackle and thud of gunfire and shelling rang out from the encampment as plumes of thick black smoke rose over the bombed-out IS bastion. Amid the rubble, three SDF fighters lobbed a salvo of mortar shells towards the IS pocket.


On a rooftop near the front line, an AFP correspondent saw a warplane fire two missiles at IS positions.


Delil, an SDF fighter, said: “Today, the sandstorm is to their benefit but all coming days are ours.” Outside the village, dozens of evacuees sat in clusters on a field dotted with yellow flowers, a day after thousands of the last survivors of the “caliphate” handed themselves over to US-backed forces.


The SDF have said that fierce bombardment on the last IS pocket aims to “terrorise” militants and their relatives into surrendering. After a night of heavy bombardment on Tuesday, SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said about 3,000 militants had handed themselves over to the SDF in the past 24 hours.


“The battle is ongoing and the final hour is now closer than ever,” he said on Twitter.


But an SDF official said on Wednesday that “it appears as though many fighters remain inside” the last pocket.


Near the front line on Tuesday night, AFP correspondents saw bright, long streaks of light in the night sky as US-backed forces bombed militant outposts.


Explosions shook the IS pocket as large fires ravaged a cluster of tents and buildings. Coalition spokesman Sean Ryan on Wednesday said IS has no room to manoeuvre.


“There is no freedom of movement at night for the enemy,” he said.


“Combined with the SDF ground movement against the final enclave, progress is being made and their capabilities are being severely destroyed.”


Since December, about 60,000 people have left the last IS redoubt, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around a tenth of them suspected militants.


The outpouring has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Kurdish-run camps for the displaced further north, which are struggling to accommodate the mass influx of women and children.


— AFP


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