Hundreds surrender as Islamic State nears defeat in last enclave

By Rodi Said

 

Islamic state fighters and their families walk as they surrendered in the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province Syria March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Rodi Said

 

BAGHOUZ, Syria (Reuters) - Islamic State faced imminent defeat in its final enclave on Tuesday as hundreds of jihadist fighters and their families surrendered and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said the battle was as good as over.

 

A Reuters journalist in Baghouz saw hundreds of people surrendering to the SDF, which launched its final attack to capture Baghouz on Sunday, backed by U.S.-led international coalition air strikes after weeks of siege.

 

The enclave is the last shred of territory held by the jihadists who have been driven from roughly one third of Iraq and Syria over the past four years.

 

The ferocious assault continued late on Tuesday. Live footage broadcast by the Kurdish Ronahi TV showed a series of large explosions lighting up the night sky over Baghouz, apparently from an ammunitions dump blowing up.

 

Smoke billowed past burning buildings, lit orange by flares and raging fires, as tracer fire poured into the enclave amid the sound of constant shooting and blasts.

 

SDF official Mustafa Bali said on Twitter on Tuesday that the number of Islamic State members who had surrendered has risen to 3,000.

 

"Once our forces confirm that everyone who wants to surrender has done so ... the clashes will resume," he said, adding that the jihadists' defeat was very near.

 

The coalition said in an email earlier on Tuesday there were an estimated "few hundred" foreign Islamic State fighters remaining in Baghouz who had decided to fight to the end.

 

The Baghouz enclave had been pounded on Monday with barrages of rockets, but the situation calmed on Tuesday morning before the intense bombardment resumed.

 

"The operation is over, or as good as over, but requires a little more time to be completed practically on the ground," SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel told al-Hadath TV.

 

The SDF has laid siege to Baghouz for weeks but has repeatedly postponed its final assault to allow thousands of civilians, many of them wives and children of Islamic State fighters, to leave. It resumed the attack on Sunday.

 

Gabriel said 25 Islamic State fighters had been confirmed killed so far in clashes, in addition to an unknown number of militants killed by air strikes. Another SDF official said earlier 38 jihadists had been confirmed killed.

 

The SDF, which is spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, has been advancing slowly into Baghouz to minimise its losses from sniper fire and landmines.

 

Three SDF fighters have been killed, Bali said on Twitter.

 

Control of Syrian communities:

 

TUNNELS

Islamic State's defences include extensive tunnels. The militant group's most hardened foreign fighters are holed up inside the enclave, the SDF has said.

 

However the United States does not believe any senior Islamic State leaders are in Baghouz, assessing they have gone elsewhere as part of the group's shift towards guerrilla tactics, a U.S. defence official has said.

 

Fighters surrendering from Baghouz are questioned and searched.

 

While Baghouz is the last populated territory of what was once the group's self-proclaimed "caliphate", fighters still operate in remote areas elsewhere. It is widely assessed that they will continue to represent a potent security threat.

 

Even as the last shred of its physical statelet crumbled, the group put out a new propaganda video, filmed in recent weeks inside Baghouz, insisting on its claim to leadership of all Muslims and calling on its supporters to keep the faith.

 

"Tomorrow, God willing, we will be in paradise and they will be burning in hell," it showed an Islamic State member identified as Abu Abd al-Azeem saying.

 

Most of the people evacuated from the diminishing Islamic State territory have been transported to a camp for internally displaced people in al-Hol, in northeastern Syria, where the United Nations says conditions are dire.

 

The camp, designed to accommodate 20,000 people, is now sheltering more than 66,000. The World Health Organization said on Tuesday 106 people, mainly infants, have died since December on the journey to al-Hol, which takes at least six hours.

 

Many evacuees, particularly foreigners, still express obdurate support for Islamic State, posing difficult security, legal and moral questions for their countries of origin.

 

Those issues were underscored on Friday with the death of the newborn son of Shamima Begum, a British woman who left London to join Islamic State when she was a schoolgirl. Britain stripped her of her citizenship on security grounds last month.

 

(Additional reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Lisa Barrington and Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Tom Perry and Angus McDowall; Editing by Frances Kerry, Peter Graff and James Dalgleish)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-03-13

They should be thankful they have the option to surrender

1 hour ago, webfact said:

 

Islamic state fighters and their families walk as they surrendered in the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province Syria

Oh look! There's George and Mabel from #7!

The UN says conditions are dire at the camp where the scum are being held.
Surely that's just perfect for them to live out their 7th century dream.

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As a civilised society, we cannot drop "MOAB’s" on them.

 

Governments too have a responsibility to the wider community – as such cannot allow them to live among us – “they” themselves, have forfeited that right.

 

We need to find ways to “Humanely” rid our world of this intense form of indoctrination, peddled by MANY religions.

Surrender shouldn't have been an option unless they were going to be arrested and tried for the crimes ISIS committed in Syria. The beheadings, rapes, murder, slavery etc.. If they were members of ISIS they are guilty. Life in jail or execution. Instead, they will be allowed to regroup, rearm, and terrorize again. 

Just execute them..think about it..dogs get put down for a lot less

Surrender shouldn't have been an option unless they were going to be arrested and tried for the crimes ISIS committed in Syria. The beheadings, rapes, murder, slavery etc.. If they were members of ISIS they are guilty. Life in jail or execution. Instead, they will be allowed to regroup, rearm, and terrorize again. 

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"We were evicted from our hole in the ground.  Had to go live in a lake!"

Best to turn them over to the Syrian government.

"Hundreds surrender as Islamic State -

- nears defeat in last enclave":

I'd like to propose a 'GoFundMe' project for these destitute folk.

Irrespective of which country it is that they hail from, bring them ALL to Scotland so that they can live out their lives in Peace & Tranquility away from the horrors of war on a picturesque island ... bless!!!

http://www.the13thfloor.tv/2016/08/08/gruinard-island-the-island-of-anthrax-the-island-of-death/

SORRY about the sound quality.

The narrator was 'doing-a-Norman!'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYpQyJ_bTiw

 

Just behead them all and have done with it. Then they can all go to Islamic heaven. I'm sure there would be plenty of volunteers to do it. 

Treat them in accordance with their own merciless savagery, how they themselves have treated their captives.. torture them, behead them, burn them in cages, etc. I would not shed a single tear for them

6 hours ago, MalandLee said:

As a civilised society, we cannot drop "MOAB’s" on them.

 

Governments too have a responsibility to the wider community – as such cannot allow them to live among us – “they” themselves, have forfeited that right.

 

We need to find ways to “Humanely” rid our world of this intense form of indoctrination, peddled by MANY religions.

Not much is left of Baghouz and a few was on the receiving end of this funny little rocket.

 

 

have they handed back their weapons to the US govt

11 hours ago, MalandLee said:

We need to find ways to “Humanely” rid our world of this intense form of indoctrination, peddled by MANY religions.

Your answer was right there. Get rid of the religions. Replace with functional frontal lobes. I think it's called education.

21 hours ago, pegman said:

Best to turn them over to the Syrian government.

https://www.newsweek.com/how-syrias-assad-helped-forge-isis-255631

Firing squad for every last one of them

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1 hour ago, vinniekintana said:

The fact that the SDF doesn't treat the captives with the customary bullet-in-the-head, looks fishy to me.

...and these IS leftovers are not gonna be prosecuted either.

Uncle Scam has a lot of 'splaining to do.

 

SDF permitting surrender of IS fighters reduces casualties within their own forces as well as the lives of civilians held by IS. 

The ones that weren't shot will just be at it again as soon as they can. The indoctrination is so strong there's no reversing it. Pick some remote island in the middle of an ocean, ferry them there and leave a lot of sharp long knives on the beach. Come back in 20 years to see if the problem resolved itself.

4 hours ago, simple1 said:

https://www.newsweek.com/how-syrias-assad-helped-forge-isis-255631

So Assad and the CIA created ISIS?

4 minutes ago, pegman said:

So Assad and the CIA created ISIS?

Nope, but Assad and US definitely contributed to the rise of IS by significant policy errors e.g. US de Baathification of Iraq.

25 minutes ago, simple1 said:

Nope, but Assad and US definitely contributed to the rise of IS by significant policy errors e.g. US de Baathification of Iraq.

Please. Assad's "contribution", such as it may be, is as nothing compared to the USA's.

I am certainly not a Trump supporter, but one of Obama’s faults was turning his head hoping this ISIS problem ( which also spread to north Africa, Philippines, and maybe South Thailand would go away. It only increased.  I lived in the ME for over 12 years so I most likely know the Islamic politics and brain washing that goes on than most USA leaders.!

The SDF is showing their humanity, or their alignment with Western values. Besides, it's a good tactic. You want people to fight to the death, kill your prisoners, preferaby in the most horrible way imaginable. In a way, ISIS became their own worst enemy. 

5 hours ago, toenail said:

I am certainly not a Trump supporter, but one of Obama’s faults was turning his head hoping this ISIS problem ( which also spread to north Africa, Philippines, and maybe South Thailand would go away. It only increased.  I lived in the ME for over 12 years so I most likely know the Islamic politics and brain washing that goes on than most USA leaders.!

Really? Got some evidence for that? It seems that the rise of Isis caught the inteligence services by surprise. Hardly the same thing as Obama ignoring it.