Daesh regains full control of last urban bastion in Syria

Syrian pro-government forces patrol in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor on November 4, 2017. Syrian and allied forces converged on holdout Daesh fighters in the Syrian border town of Albu Kamal, the jihadists' very last urban bastion following a string of losses. (AFP)

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Daesh terrorists have recaptured nearly all of Albu Kamal, putting up a fierce fightback for what had been the last significant Syrian town under their control, a monitor said Saturday.
Syrian regime forces and allied militia overran Albu Kamal, which lies on the border with Iraq, on Thursday, but have since faced a string of Daesh counterattacks.
On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Daesh had “ambushed” the attacking forces and managed to oust them from most of the town.
“IS (Daesh) has almost completely retaken control of Albu Kamal, pushing pro-regime forces to their southern and eastern edges,” said Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Britain-based monitor.
Clashes were still raging there on Saturday, he said.
Daesh began counterattacking on Thursday night, swiftly retaking several northern districts of Albu Kamal from pro-regime fighters.
“It was Daesh’s biggest ambush operation, tricking the attacking forces into thinking they had controlled the city,” Abdul Rahman said.
Albu Kamal lies at the heart of what used to be the sprawling “caliphate” that Daesh declared in 2014 across swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Losing it completely would have capped the group’s reversion to an underground guerrilla organization with no urban base.
Russian-backed Syrian regime forces and allied fighters had steadily advanced on Albu Kamal from the south and west for weeks, while Iraqi forces had closed in on the border area from the east.
The observatory has said most of the fighting was done by the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and elite forces from its backer Tehran, as well as militia groups from Iraq.
On Saturday, Abdul Rahman said Albu Kamal was being pummeled by airstrikes, but he could not specify whether they were Iraqi or Russian raids.
Across the border on Saturday, Iraqi forces launched an assault to capture the last pocket of Daesh territory in their country.
The Euphrates valley town of Rawa and nearby villages were bypassed by regime troops and allied militia when they retook the border town of Al-Qaim last week.