The Battle of Baghuz Fawqani
was an offensive by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), assisted by
American-led coalition airstrikes, artillery, and special forces personnel,
that began on 9 February 2019 as part of the Deir ez-Zor campaign of the Syrian
Civil War. The battle, composed of a series of ground assaults, took place in
and around the Syrian town of Al-Baghuz Fawqani
in the Middle Euphrates
River Valley ,
near the Iraq–Syria border, and was regarded as the territorial last stand of
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in eastern Syria
After encircling the Islamic State into a densely populated cluster of hamlets and a tent city along the riverside within the first week, the SDF acknowledged that a greater than anticipated number of civilians, mostly relatives of the mostly foreign ISIL fighters, was still in the enclave. With Coalition oversight, the SDF took an incremental approach to the battle, launching fierce assaults then pausing to allow surrendering fighters, hostages, and families to evacuate in order to minimize civilian casualties. The "trickle-out" strategy, coupled with stiff, fanatical resistance by veteran ISIL jihadists within a small but dense area, prolonged the battle into a protracted siege. The SDF officially declared final victory over the Islamic State in Baghuz Fawqani on 23 March.
Aftermath of theBattle
Both before and throughout the battle, immense focus was put on the surrounding humanitarian situation in the ISIL enclave. The SDF helped transfer tens of thousands of civilians to internally displaced persons camps in northeastSyria U.S.
On 21 February, an Iraqi official stated that the SDF had transferred 150 ISIL militants to Iraqi authorities under a deal involving a total of 502, making it the single largest repatriation of ISIL members thus far. On 24 February, the Iraqi Government stated that they received 13 more ISIL suspects from the SDF. Some Iraqi officials stated that all 13 were of French origin.
By 1 March, the population of the Al-Hawl refugee camp soared past 50,000, due to the massive civilian evacuations from the Baghuz Fawqani region. Aid organizations feared that dysentery and other diseases could break out from the overflowing camp. The United Nations stated that 84 people, mostly children, died on the way to Al-Hawl, since December 2018. This number was raised to 100 by the end of the battle, and the refugee camp had swelled to at least 74,000 people.
On 7 March, in regards to the evacuations, CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph Votel stated that he believed that surrendered ISIL fighters were largely "unrepentant, unbroken and radicalized," and were waiting "for the right time to resurge". "We will need to maintain a vigilant offensive against this now widely dispersed and disaggregated organization that includes leaders, fighters, facilitators, resources and toxic ideology," he added. This was supported by subsequent interviews with surrendered ISIL militants and some of their family members. By 9 March, one month into the protracted battle/stand-off, many evacuating ISIL militants and their families reportedly remained unrepentant and devoted to the "caliphate" and hoped for future "conquests.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baghuz_Fawqani
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Future Guerilla Attacks by ISIL
The New York Times reports that ISIL is still capable of guerilla attacks inSyria
and Iraq
After encircling the Islamic State into a densely populated cluster of hamlets and a tent city along the riverside within the first week, the SDF acknowledged that a greater than anticipated number of civilians, mostly relatives of the mostly foreign ISIL fighters, was still in the enclave. With Coalition oversight, the SDF took an incremental approach to the battle, launching fierce assaults then pausing to allow surrendering fighters, hostages, and families to evacuate in order to minimize civilian casualties. The "trickle-out" strategy, coupled with stiff, fanatical resistance by veteran ISIL jihadists within a small but dense area, prolonged the battle into a protracted siege. The SDF officially declared final victory over the Islamic State in Baghuz Fawqani on 23 March.
Aftermath of the
Both before and throughout the battle, immense focus was put on the surrounding humanitarian situation in the ISIL enclave. The SDF helped transfer tens of thousands of civilians to internally displaced persons camps in northeast
On 21 February, an Iraqi official stated that the SDF had transferred 150 ISIL militants to Iraqi authorities under a deal involving a total of 502, making it the single largest repatriation of ISIL members thus far. On 24 February, the Iraqi Government stated that they received 13 more ISIL suspects from the SDF. Some Iraqi officials stated that all 13 were of French origin.
By 1 March, the population of the Al-Hawl refugee camp soared past 50,000, due to the massive civilian evacuations from the Baghuz Fawqani region. Aid organizations feared that dysentery and other diseases could break out from the overflowing camp. The United Nations stated that 84 people, mostly children, died on the way to Al-Hawl, since December 2018. This number was raised to 100 by the end of the battle, and the refugee camp had swelled to at least 74,000 people.
On 7 March, in regards to the evacuations, CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph Votel stated that he believed that surrendered ISIL fighters were largely "unrepentant, unbroken and radicalized," and were waiting "for the right time to resurge". "We will need to maintain a vigilant offensive against this now widely dispersed and disaggregated organization that includes leaders, fighters, facilitators, resources and toxic ideology," he added. This was supported by subsequent interviews with surrendered ISIL militants and some of their family members. By 9 March, one month into the protracted battle/stand-off, many evacuating ISIL militants and their families reportedly remained unrepentant and devoted to the "caliphate" and hoped for future "conquests.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baghuz_Fawqani
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Future Guerilla Attacks by ISIL
The New York Times reports that ISIL is still capable of guerilla attacks in
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