The once vast ISIS ‘caliphate’ is now reduced to a pair of villages in Syria
BEIRUT — A pair of dusty villages in the Syrian desert is all that remains of the vast expanse of territory the Islamic State once called its caliphate, and the complete territorial defeat of the militant group appears to be imminent, according to U.S. and Kurdish officials.
A few hundred of the most die-hard Islamic State fighters are making their last stand in the villages of Marashida and Baghuz Fawqani on the banks of the Euphrates River, a few miles from the Iraqi border in southeastern Syria. With the Syrian army on the other side of the river, a group that once controlled an area the size of Britain is pinned down by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in a dot of land measuring six square miles.
It is now only a matter of weeks or even days before the villages are overrun and the Islamic State’s vaunted state-building enterprise in Syria and Iraq is brought to an end, military officials say.
The conclusion of the 4½ -year war will also add urgency to the question of when and how the United States will pull its forces out of Syria, as ordered by President Trump last month. He later said they would remain to finish the fight against the Islamic State, and still no date has been set for their withdrawal.
Col. Sean Ryan, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, cautioned that the end of the war on the ground will not halt the threat posed by the Islamic State, which is trying to regroup as an insurgent force in many of the areas where it has lost control.
Although the military has withdrawn some equipment, no troops have left and no deadline for a pullout has been issued, he said. In the meantime, U.S. troops will be focusing on training their local partners and stabilizing the area to deter a return of the militants.
“The end is near, territorial-wise, but they will continue to regroup and, like we’ve seen over the past two weeks, will try to create spectacular events,” Ryan said, referring to the suicide bombing at a restaurant in the town of Manbij this month, which killed four Americans. It came more than three years after the Islamic State had been driven out of that area.
The holdouts in the two desert villages include some of the most committed extremists, who have remained on the battlefield despite multiple opportunities to escape or surrender and can be expected to fight until the end....MUCH MORE
