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US-backed force launches assault on IS in east Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria, Sept 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – US-backed fighters launched a
fierce assault Monday against a dwindling pocket of territory held by the
Islamic State group in east Syria, a commander and a war monitor told AFP.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters,
have been closing in for months on the town of Hajin in eastern Deir Ezzor
province.
On Monday, they began an offensive for the IS-held town itself.
An SDF commander said the assault, relying heavily on artillery and US-led
coalition air strikes, had killed at least 15 IS fighters.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the IS death toll was
at least 17.
“Our forces today began attacking the last bastions of Daesh in Hajin,
with intense artillery and air support,” said the SDF commander, who spoke on
condition of anonymity and used the Arabic acronym for IS.
“The clashes will be fierce in Hajin because Daesh has reinforced their
positions, but we will take control of it,” the commander told AFP.
The Britain-based Observatory said the SDF had been amassing fighters and
equipment and beefing up their positions for weeks ahead of the attack.
“The operation to end Daesh’s presence in this pocket began today, with
the heaviest air strikes, artillery fire, and ground attacks in months by the
SDF and the coalition,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said the SDF had broken into Hajin from its northwestern edge and taken
control of part of the area, while opening a humanitarian corridor to allow
residents to flee.
IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in 2014 across swathes of Syria and
Iraq, but various separate offensives by the national armies of both
countries, Kurdish forces and international backers have seen the jihadists’
territory shrink dramatically.
In Syria, IS controls part of Deir Ezzor as well as some territory in the
south.
The SDF, founded in October 2015, has been backed by US-led coalition air
strikes, artillery, and special forces advisers.
It ousted IS from swathes of Syria’s north last year, including from their
main bastion Raqa.
In Deir Ezzor, the SDF is battling IS on the eastern side of the Euphrates
River, that cuts through the province, while Syrian regime troops backed by
Russia battle them west of the river.
In July, a coalition official said a few hundred IS fighters remain in the
eastern pocket.
In a purported new audio recording released on August 22, IS leader Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi remained defiant.
“The caliphate will remain,” he said. “IS is not confined to Hajin.”
On Monday, coalition spokesman Sean Ryan told AFP that IS still held an
estimated 1,000 square kilometres (under 400 square miles) in the Euphrates
Valley.
“The challenges ahead include a difficult fight and it will not be easy,”
said Ryan, adding that IS’s use of mines “will make fighting slower than
expected”.
Coalition troops would not take part in any “major ground advance”
alongside the SDF, he said, although they did expect that some high-value IS
targets could still be present in Hajin.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1950HRS