US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian forces have launched a final push to defeat the Islamic State terror group in the last tiny pocket the extremists hold in eastern Syria. According to the Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Mustafa Bali, the offensive started over the weekend.
Prior to the offensive, more than 20,000 civilians were evacuated from the Isis-held area in the eastern province of Deir Ez-Zor. The attack is said to be focused on the village of Baghuz the last believed to be held by ISIS.
The SDF, backed by US air power, has driven ISIS from large swaths of the territory it once controlled in northern and eastern Syria, confining the extremists to a small pocket of land near the border with Iraq.
While it is the final stronghold, the SDF maintains that the battle is fierce seeing as the terrorists holed up in the village are the most experienced including senior commanders and other elite members of the group.
