One last bastion is still held by the terrorist militia „Islamic State“ (IS) in eastern Syria. But the militia alliance „Syrian Democratic Forces“ (SDF) has circled Baghus. 400 IS fighters have now been arrested when they tried to flee the village.
A representative of the SDF said the Kurdish-Arab Alliance had seized a large group of jihadists on Tuesday evening while trying to leave the village on the Iraqi border with a smuggling network. The SDF officer said that IS supporters tried to escape on foot. Among them were Syrians and various foreigners.
Only on Friday had the SDF units resumed their offensive on Baghus. Previously, it had been interrupted due to the large number of civilians, thousands of IS fighters with their wives and children left Baghus then. On Sunday, however, the militias supported by the international anti-IS coalition again stopped the attacks to allow more people to leave the besieged village.
Thousands of people flee
Hundreds of people have left Baghus in the past few days. According to the news agency AFP, it was based on the SDF alone on Tuesday 3,500 people. Among them were 500 IS fighters who surrendered to the besiegers. The news agency Reuters speaks of a total of 6500 people in recent days, the SDF reports. On Wednesday again followed numerous people, it could have been more than 2000, according to the militia alliance.
According to AFP, dozens of men were waiting in line at a rallying point in the desert on Wednesday to be searched and questioned by the SDF fighters. Many of the people were ragged and injured. Even several children were able to leave Baghus, including seven Yazidis who were allegedly abducted by the IS fighters.
The village on the Euphrates consists of a few dozen houses connected by tunnels. The SDF fighters are therefore amazed at the large number of people in Baghus. It is the last place in the area of the caliphate proclaimed by the IS. Otherwise, the militia controls only a few nearly uninhabited areas in the region. In 2014, IS had about a third of the Syrian and Iraqi territory under its control.
In mid-February, Donald Trump launched a public debate on what should happen to foreign IS fighters once they have been arrested. The US president called on the jihadist countries to absorb them. The Federal Government hesitated for a long time and finally agreed to take German citizenship from German IS fighters with a double passport. (Read a comment here on the topic.)
