Some ISIS jihadists surrender in eastern Syria but an unknown number remain

Around 150 ISIS fighters surrendered after a battle over the terrorist group’s last shred of territory in eastern Syria. But a military source in a US-backed Syrian force, said on Monday an unknown number of militants are still holding out.

The jihadist group faces defeat in Baghouz on the banks of the Euphrates, but it still holds pockets of land in remote areas further west and has launched guerrilla attacks in other areas where it has lost control.

Baghouz, a collection of hamlets and farmland near the border with Iraq, is the last patch of populated territory ISIS still holds in the area straddling the two countries where it declared a caliphate in 2014.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said earlier on Monday they had slowed their assault because more civilians, previously thought to have completely evacuated, were trapped in the enclave, but they vowed to capture it soon.

A convoy of trucks was seen heading into Baghouz in the morning, and the SDF military source said 150 jihadists had left along with about 350 civilians, confirming an earlier Syrian Observatory for Human Rights report on the surrenders.

An unknown number of jihadists remained inside, the source said.

The fighters hail from a number of countries including Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, said an SDF faction which distributed photographs showing men separated from women and small children.

ISIS has gradually fallen back on Baghouz as its fighters retreated down the Euphrates in the face of sustained assault by local and international foes after its grotesque displays of cruelty roused global fury.

Despite the setbacks, the group remains a deadly threat, developing alternatives to its caliphate ranging from rural insurgency to urban bombings by affiliates in the region and beyond, many governments say.

Human shields

The SDF resumed its assault on Baghouz over the weekend, the culmination of a campaign that included the capture of Raqqa in 2017, when IS also lost other big cities including Mosul in Iraq.

The militia had already paused its attack for weeks to allow thousands of people to leave the area, including IS supporters, fighters, children, local people and some of the group’s captives.

It said on Friday that only jihadists remained, mostly foreigners, but it now says some more civilians are left.

“We’re slowing down the offensive in Baghouz due to a small number of civilians held as human shields by Daesh,” said SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali on Twitter, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

However, “the battle to retake the last ISIS holdout is going to be over soon,” he added.

Dozens of trucks similar to those that had evacuated people from the enclave in recent weeks were heading back there on Monday.

Col. Sean Ryan, spokesman for the US-led international coalition backing the SDF, said he could not verify who ISIS was holding but hoped they would be released unharmed.

On Sunday, the SDF faced landmines, car bombs, tunnel ambushes and suicide attacks as they attempted to overrun the enclave — tactics the jihadist group has honed through its hard-fought retreat.

Reuters photographs from Baghouz on Sunday showed dark plumes of smoke rising above houses and palm trees, and SDF fighters shooting into the ISIS enclave.

While the capture of Baghouz would mark a milestone in the fight against ISIS, the group is expected to remain a security threat as an insurgent force with sleeper cells and some pockets of remote territory.

By Ellen Francis/Reuters

Reporting by Ellen Francis; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Robert Birsel, William Maclean and Hugh Lawson.