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AFP
Baghouz
Kurdish-led fighters backed by US warplanes tried Thursday to break the last defences of holdout Islamic State group militants making a suicidal last stand in a remote Syrian village.
All that remains of a sprawling cross-border “caliphate” the militants declared in 2014 is a battered riverside camp in eastern Syria on the Iraqi border.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have since Sunday rained fire on the enclave in a bend of the Euphrates River, blitzing thousands of IS members into surrender. But hardliners still inside are putting up fierce resistance, hiding underground from air strikes by a US-led coalition, and unleashing suicide bombers on advancing forces.
A spokesman for the Kurdish units on the ground inside the village of Baghouz on Thursday said these tactics were preventing a speedy advance.
“There is progress but it is slow as the area is narrow,” said Jiaker Amed, a spokesman for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) taking part in the fight. “Those who stayed inside are mostly suicide bombers blowing themselves up, which is impeding the advance,” he said. “They are using below-ground tactics,” hunkering low in tunnels and trenches, the spokesman said. “That’s why the warplanes are not having the desired effect.”
Baghouz
Kurdish-led fighters backed by US warplanes tried Thursday to break the last defences of holdout Islamic State group militants making a suicidal last stand in a remote Syrian village.
All that remains of a sprawling cross-border “caliphate” the militants declared in 2014 is a battered riverside camp in eastern Syria on the Iraqi border.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have since Sunday rained fire on the enclave in a bend of the Euphrates River, blitzing thousands of IS members into surrender. But hardliners still inside are putting up fierce resistance, hiding underground from air strikes by a US-led coalition, and unleashing suicide bombers on advancing forces.
A spokesman for the Kurdish units on the ground inside the village of Baghouz on Thursday said these tactics were preventing a speedy advance.
“There is progress but it is slow as the area is narrow,” said Jiaker Amed, a spokesman for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) taking part in the fight. “Those who stayed inside are mostly suicide bombers blowing themselves up, which is impeding the advance,” he said. “They are using below-ground tactics,” hunkering low in tunnels and trenches, the spokesman said. “That’s why the warplanes are not having the desired effect.”
