Syria’s Kurdish-led and United States-backed forces launched an offensive against the ISIS on Saturday. Prior to the offensive, over twenty thousand civilians were evacuated from the ISIS-captured region in the province of Deir ez-Zor, Syria
Post the evacuation of more than 20,000 civilians from the East Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, Syria’s US-backed and Kurdish-led forces launched an offensive to defeat the ISIS in the caliphate’s captured area of the city. Reportedly, the offensive was an attempt to wipe out the ISIS from Eastern Syria by defeating the organisation’s only remaining captured area in the region.
According to a tweet by Mustafa Bali, official spokesperson for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, “After saving more than 20K civilians from IS-held area and ensuring their safety in nearby camps, #SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) started to move on to the last village remaining under jihadists’ control in N. Syria. Village of Baghuz, which is the only remaining #ISIS pocket, will be cleared soon.” Over the years, the Syrian Democratic Forces have managed to fight off the Islamic State group in Northern and Eastern Syria, limiting its control to a small area near the Iraq border.
After many, including the families of the extremist group’s fighters, left the ISIS-occupied region in Deir ez-Zor over the past few weeks, on Saturday, Mustafa Bali asserted, “The decisive battle began tonight to finish what remains of Daesh (Arabic name of the ISIS) terrorists”.
According to recent statements by the United States’ officials, less than five square kilometres of land is under the ISIS in Syria. Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump affirmed, “It should be formally announced some time, probably next week, that we will have 100% of the caliphate.”