The U.S.-led coalition in Syria conducted air strikes last week that destroyed facilities used by Daesh (ISIS), the coalition said Tuesday, less than a week after President Donald Trump declared victory over the militant group and said he would withdraw U.S. troops from the war-torn country.
The coalition said its attacks during the week of Dec. 16-22, including air strikes and "coordinated fires," had destroyed logistics facilities and staging areas used by Daesh, damaged the group's ability to finance its activities and "removed several hundred ISIS fighters from the battlefield."
"ISIS presents a very real threat to the long-term stability in this region and our mission remains the same, the enduring defeat of ISIS," said U.K. Major General Christopher Ghika, the deputy commander of the coalition.
That statement presents a contrast to Trump's declaration last week that U.S. troops had succeeded in their mission to defeat Daesh and were no longer needed in the country.
News of the withdrawal drew immediate criticism from some of Trump's fellow Republicans, who said that leaving would strengthen the hand of Russia and Iran, which both support Bashar Assad.
In response to Trump, Britain's Foreign Office said last week that Daesh remained a threat even though it held no territory.
The withdrawal may also leave exposed an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militants known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, which has been among the most effective against Daesh, but is now seen under threat as Turkey weighs a new offensive in Syria.
On Monday, Kurdish-led forces made gains against Daesh in eastern Syria as fighting forced hundreds of people to flee to SDF areas.
The SDF closed in on the two main spots where jihadists are digging their heels in, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"There is currently fighting around the villages of Al-Shaafa and Sousa," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based monitor.
The two villages are the main hubs in what is left of the Islamic State group's last pocket in the Euphrates River valley, near the Iraqi border.
"The latest developments are in favour of the SDF and it appears the Islamic State may collapse soon," Abdel Rahman said.
An SDF spokesman, Kino Gabriel, said the Kurdish-Arab alliance was able to repulse several jihadist attacks and was now advancing from three different directions.
A few hundred holdout fighters are defending the last rump of the jihadist organisation's self-proclaimed "caliphate", which once covered territory the size of Britain.
The SDF reported in a statement on Sunday that it had evacuated 1,000 civilians from the area where the fighting was taking place.
The Observatory said a total of more than 5,000 people were able to flee the IS pocket since the SDF took Hajin, which had been the main hub in the jihadist's Euphrates pocket, on December 14.
Abdel Rahman said most of them were women and children but he added that some fighters were trying to blend in with civilians, forcing the SDF to screen the evacuees at the Omar oil field.
The fall of Al-Shaafa and Sousa will cap a years-long multi-national effort to smash the sprawling pro-state IS declared over parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014.
If the jihadists lose these two villages, they will no longer control any populated areas in Iraq or Syria and will have fully reverted to being a clandestine group hiding in desert areas.
Agencies
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