BAGHOUZ, Syria: US-backed forces battled Daesh group fighters overnight as the extremists Saturday clung onto their crumbling bastion in eastern Syria.
“Clashes broke out again last night and have continued since,” said Adnane Afrine, spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
“There have so far been no surrenders (today) and there’s no sign they are giving up,” he told AFP.
AFP journalists at an SDF post inside Baghouz village, the last Daesh redoubt, heard sporadic rounds of mortar fire and US-led coalition planes overhead.
Daesh launched three suicide attacks Friday outside Baghouz, killing six people among those fleeing the crumbling extremist bastion near the Iraqi border.
They were the latest casualties in Syria’s devastating civil war as it entered its ninth year with 370,000 dead.
All that remains of a once-sprawling proto-state that the Daesh militants declared in 2014 is a battered riverside camp in Baghouz.
The SDF and coalition warplanes have rained fire on the enclave since last Sunday, blitzing more than 4,000 Daesh fighter and family members into surrender.
Their on-off assault has been mostly fought at night, suspending major operations dayside to allow more surrenders, especially of civilians.
In total, over 61,000 people have streamed out of Daesh-held territory since December, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.
Daesh clings on in face of Kurd-led assault in Syria
Daesh clings on in face of Kurd-led assault in Syria
- Their on-off assault has been mostly fought at night
- In total, over 61,000 people have streamed out of Daesh-held territory since December
