Even after the fall of ISIS’s “pocket” in the Al-Baghouz region, SDF forces continue to mop up the village and the surrounding area. In the meantime, ISIS continues to carry out acts of terrorism and guerrilla warfare in the Syrian arena. The Syrian army and the security forces of the SDF are employing counterterrorism measures against ISIS’s guerrilla activity. Read more...
The area of the village of Al-Baghouz fell this week into the hands of the SDF forces, ending the campaign which lasted more than six months to take over ISIS’s control area in the Lower Euphrates Valley. SDF spokesmen announced the destruction of ISIS and the end of ISIS’s control in the last “pocket” of Al-Baghouz. President Trump and senior US officials announced that the United States and its allies had liberated all the areas that had been under ISIS’s control in Syria and Iraq. At the propaganda level, ISIS continues its efforts to address its defeat. The loss of ISIS’s control area in the Lower Euphrates Valley marks the end of a process in which ISIS lost the rest of its control areas in Syria over the past year. Against the backdrop of the fall of ISIS in Syria, the intensive activity of the organization’s provinces throughout the world is salient. Prominent events that took place this week Read more...
On March 23, 2019 the SDF Kurdish forces announced that they had destroyed the ISIS forces and brought to an end their control over the last pocket in the village of al-Baghuz. Thus the campaign waged by the SDF and their American and coalition supporters ended, after more than six months of battle. Read more...
On the eve of the fall of al-Baghuz Fawqani, the last stronghold of ISIS in the lower Euphrates Valley, ISIS began a media campaign. Its objectives are to encourage the organization's fighters and supporters, and to send the message that ISIS has lost the battle but not the war. A key person in the campaign is ISIS spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajer. Read more...
Recently, media outlets affiliated with ISIS reported on military activity carried out by ISIS in northwestern Tunisia. The focus of this activity is Al-Qasrin Province in the western part of the country, near the border with Algeria. The Tunisian security forces carry out counterterrorist activities against the ISIS networks, reportedly having killed the leader (emir) of ISIS in Tunisia in one of them (Tunisian News Agency, March 19, 2019). Read more...
The battle for the takeover of the ISIS outpost in Al-Baghouz is coming to an end. In the Upper Euphrates River (the Al-Mayadeen area), this week ISIS engaged in intensive activity against the SDF forces and the civilians collaborating with them. In the Idlib area, exchanges of artillery fire continue between the Syrian army and the jihadi rebel organizations. In the city of Manbij and its environs, the SDF forces and the SDF-backed local military council launched an operation aimed at exposing ISIS and pro-Turkish elements. In light of the pressure exerted on ISIS in Syria, ISIS’s provinces in Iraq and abroad carried out intensive activities Read more...
