BAGHOUZ, Syria: Kurdish-led forces pronounced the death of the IS group’s nearly five-year-old “caliphate” on Saturday after flushing out diehard militants from their very last bastion in eastern Syria.
Fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces raised their yellow flag in Baghouz, the remote riverside village where diehard militants of a variety of nationalities made a desperate, dramatic last stand.
The SDF’s victory capped a deadly six-month operation against the final remnants of the caliphate which once stretched across a vast swathe of Iraq and Syria, and held seven million people in its sway.
World leaders hailed the victory as a major landmark in the fight against IS and its ideology, but warned the group that spurred a spate of global terror attacks was far from defeated.
“Syrian Democratic Forces declare total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100 per cent territorial defeat of IS,” spokesman Mustefa Bali said.
In Al-Omar, an oil field used as the main SDF staging base for the final phase of the assault, fighters laid down their weapons and broke into song and dance. They joined top Kurdish and Arab tribal officials, as well as a leading US envoy, for a ceremony unveiling a monument to their fallen comrades.
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