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Agence France-Presse

Around 3,000 Islamic State members have surrendered from the group’s last holdout in Syria, Kurdish-led forces said, as air raids and shelling resumed after a brief lull.
A ragged tent encampment in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz is all that remains of a once-sprawling IS group’s “caliphate” declared in 2014 across large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has been trying to crush holdout IS fighters for weeks but the mass outpouring of men, women and children from the riverside hamlet has bogged down its advance.
Backed by the US-led coalition, the SDF renewed its assault Sunday after warning remaining IS fighters their time was up.

Air strikes and shelling then pommelled Baghouz three nights in a row, killing scores of fighters and prompting hundreds of jihadists and their relatives to surrender.
Thousands handed themselves over Tuesday, after a deluge of fire hit the IS encampment the previous night.
 ‘We will be in paradise, they will burn in hell,’ says defiant Islamic State video as group faces final Syria fight
“Number of Daesh (IS) members surrendered to us since yesterday evening has risen to 3,000,” Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Mustefa Bali tweeted in English on Tuesday evening.

Number of Daesh members surrendered to us since yesterday evening has risen to 3000. 3 Yazidi women and 4 children were rescued, too.
— Mustafa Bali (@mustefabali) March 12, 2019

He said US-backed forces clashed with jihadists on several fronts, killing nearly 40 IS fighters.
Since December, around 60,000 people have left the last IS redoubt, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around a tenth of them suspected jihadist fighters.
The United Nations said the numbers from Baghouz arriving in one Kurdish-run camp further north for the displaced were smaller than in previous weeks.

It said they were reaching the camp in a worse state than before.
The UN’s food agency said it is concerned about their well-being.
At the height of its brutal rule, IS controlled a stretch of land in Syria and Iraq the size of the United Kingdom.
The total capture of the Baghouz camp by the SDF would mark the end of the cross-border “caliphate” it proclaimed more than four years ago.

But beyond Baghouz, IS retains a presence in eastern Syria’s vast Badia desert and sleeper cells in the northeast.
The jihadists have continued to claim deadly attacks in SDF-held territory in recent months, and the US military has warned of the need to maintain a “vigilant offensive”.
Islamic State militants issued a defiant message calling on supporters around the world to carry out attacks in their defence.
Additional reporting by Associated Press and Reuters


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Islamic State

‘3,000 surrender’ as Islamic State nears defeat in last Syria bastion Baghouz

A fighter with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fires a machine gun in a position in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor outside the Islamic State group's embattled holdout of Baghouz , on March 11, 2019. - Kurdish-led forces pounded the last scrap of land held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria after hundreds more people surrendered. The jihadists once ruled over millions in a swathe of Syria and Iraq, but they have since lost all that territory except for a riverside slither of land near the Iraqi border. (Photo by BULENT KILIC / AFP)

TOPSHOT - A picture taken in eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor shows explosions following shelling by the US-backed forces on the Islamic State group's embattled holdout of Baghouz, on March 11, 2019. - US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces pounded the last scrap of land held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria after hundreds more people surrendered. The jihadists once ruled over millions in a swathe of Syria and Iraq, but they have since lost all that territory except for a riverside slither of land near the Iraqi border. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)

A man suspected of belonging to Islamic State walks past members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) just after leaving IS' last holdout of Baghouz. Photo: AFP

News

World

Middle East

Baghouz is the last populated remnant of Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’
Thousands of fighters’ wives and children have fled the pocket


US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has been trying to crush holdout IS fighters for weeks.


Syrian conflict

‘3,000 surrender’ as Islamic State nears defeat in last Syria bastion Baghouz

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Baghouz is the last populated remnant of Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ Thousands of fighters’ wives and children have fled the pocket

Baghouz is the last populated remnant of Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’

Thousands of fighters’ wives and children have fled the pocket