(Zaman Al Wasl)- U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have reached a one-month truce with the Islamic State in villages along the Iraqi border in Hasaka province, sources told Zaman al-Wasl on Friday.
The truce has halted the last phase of the SDF campaign to uproot the militants from remaining pockets in Hasaka.
According to a military source, big numbers of ISIS fighters are seeking to reach a reconciliation deal may avoid more bloodshed.
The four-point truce stated that all ground and aerial offensive to be ceased. As well to open the ISIS-held crossings for goods and aid securing. ISIS fighters who need treatment can also cross through the Kurdish-held areas in Hasaka.
On November 8, the SDF took Markada town, last ISIS stronghold in the southern countryside of Hasaka.
Capture of Markada followed a series of rapid defeats for the Islamic State in northeastern Syria, bringing the self-declared caliphate close to complete downfall.
The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, have pushed Islamic State from much of the country’s north and east.
The borders of ISIS has shrinked in Syria and Iraq to be a small pockets after fall of Raqqa, the de facto capital, Deir Ezzor and Albu Kamal.
Islamic State has been all but destroyed over the past two years. At the height of its power in 2015, it ruled an expanse of Iraq and Syria, eradicating the border, printing money, imposing draconian laws and plotting attacks across the world.
According to a report released by the US-led coalition on Thursday, at least 800 civilians have been killed in strikes in Iraq and Syria by the U.S.-led coalition on ISIS-held areas, since the campaign began in 2014, Reuters reported.
The estimate in the monthly report, which said coalition strikes had unintentionally killed at least 801 civilians between August 2014 and October 2017, was far lower than figures provided by monitoring groups.
The monitoring groups say a total of at least 5,961 civilians have been killed by coalition air strikes.
In relevant development, Syria's Kurdish National Council (KNC) on Thursday has handed over two letters to the U.N Envoy to Syria and to the head of the opposition demanding a constitutional recognition of the rights of "the Kurdish people, senior Kurdish officials said.
Abdul Karim Hajji told Zaman al-Wasl that the Kurdish delegation had expressed its support for finding a peaceful solution in Syria and the necessity of halving all the components of the Syrian people and the constitutional recognition of the rights of the Kurds in the new Syrian constitution.
On Thursday, representatives of Syria’s warring sides sat just meters apart in separate rooms at U.N. peace talks, but mediator de Mistura stopped short of bringing them together in what diplomats had hoped might be a minor breakthrough.
Zaman A Wasl
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