US-backed troops will resume their deadly siege on the last ISIS stronghold after evacuating thousands in recent weeks.
A spokesman for the SDF said they would continue their assault on Baghouz in eastern Syria where the once proud 'caliphate' has been brought to its knees.
Mustafa Bali said there were 'only terrorists left in Baghouz' and announced his forces would resume their efforts after halting last month.
Experts believe their are still hundreds of IS militants who have cowered behind their wives and children in caves and tunnels in their last bastion.
On their knees: A Bosnian man suspected of being an ISIS fighter kneels before SDF men as he surrenders from Baghouz on Friday
Men and boys suspected of being Islamic State group fighters raise up their hands as they await to be searched by members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces
Two injured boys suspected of being Islamic State supporters lay on the back of a truck
Thousands of men - many of them suspected terrorists - women and children have limped from the ruins in the last three weeks.
They have been painstakingly driven out into the desert, separated and screened by the Kurdish forces before being moved north to camps in al-Hol.
The military campaign to drive out the the militants from the eastern banks of the Euphrates began in September, pushing them down toward this last corner in the village near the Iraqi border.
The military operation was halted on February 12 after the SDF discovered there was still a large number of civilians and hostages in the territory, which sits atop caves and tunnels where they had been hiding.
The evacuees said food was running low and clean water and medicine were scarce.
Many defended what remained of the extremist group's territorial hold, which once spanned a third of Iraq and Syria.
An SDF militia man raises the hat of a Bosnian man suspected of fighting for the brutal Islamic State terror group
Filthy and distraught looking children are loaded onto the back of truck as they await transport by the SDF on the outskirts of Baghouz
A girl waits to be screened on neutral ground away from the miserable last stronghold at Baghouz
Heavily shrouded women in the niqab, one holding a small child, wait to be screened by the SDF forces after making a last minute surrender
Bali would not speculate on how long the military operation might take but said he expects a 'fierce battle.'
He said the battles are expected to take place in a very small area that includes a complex network of tunnels, as well as suicide bombers and land mines.
'The battle to finish off what is left Daesh has started,' said SDF commander Adnan Afrin, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
The capture of the last pocket still held by IS fighters in Baghouz would mark the end of a devastating four-year global campaign to end the extremist group's hold on territory in Syria and Iraq - their so-called 'caliphate' that at the height of the group's power in 2014 controlled nearly a third of both Iraq and Syria.
It would allow U.S. President Donald Trump to begin withdrawing the estimated 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria, as he declared in December he would do.
Though last week he partially reversed course and agreed to keep a residual force of perhaps a few hundred troops as part of an international effort to stabilise northeastern Syria.
A little girl gazes up at an SDF fighter who holds his assault rifle fast as his comrades work to screen those fleeing ISIS
Boys clamber up the sides of a truck while women sit in the back as they await transport, hoping to be taken to safety at the camps in al-Hol
Yezidi boys share a meal in a area held by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces
In the last week alone, 13,000 people, most of them women and children, arrived at the al-Hol camp in Hassakeh province which now houses approximately 45,000 people, according to the United Nations.
In a statement Friday, the U.N. cited reports that more than 84 people, two thirds of them young children under five years of age, have died since December on their way to al-Hol camp after fleeing the extremist group in Syria's Deir el-Zour province.
'Many of the arrivals are exhausted, hungry and sick,' according to Jens Laerke, spokesman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at a news briefing in Geneva.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/03/01/us-backed-assault-resumes-on-final-isis-stronghold-after-halt-to-allow-thousands-to-flee-jihadists/
Main photo article US-backed troops will resume their deadly siege on the last ISIS stronghold after evacuating thousands in recent weeks.
A spokesman for the SDF said they would continue their assault on Baghouz in eastern Syria where the once proud ‘caliphate’ has been brought to its knees.
Mustafa...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/01/18/10466558-6761729-image-a-4_1551464248658.jpg
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