After a week long Fight is like the last Bastion of the “Islamic state” (IS) on the border of Syria with Iraq. The Kurdish-dominated Democratic forces of Syria (SDF) have stormed on Saturday the remaining pockets of resistance to the extremists in the village of Baghus on the Euphrates, and their Flag hoisted.
The “Caliphate” of the Islamic state, which consisted of a few years ago, almost 900,000 square kilometers, is defeated. However, keep further to the West, in the Syrian desert, thousands of IS fighters in a largely uninhabited area. These Remnants of the “Caliphate” could get in the coming months, considerable political significance for the conflict in Syria.
Since her triumph in 2014, as the IS large parts of Eastern Syria and West-conquered Iraq, have been pushed the jihadists further and further back and have lost consecutively strongholds such as Mosul in Iraq and raqqa in Syria. Now SDF-commander Mazlum Abdi in the case of a victory celebration: “Today, we announce the destruction of the organization of the so-called Islamic state and end its control over the last refuge in Baghus.”
But the IS remains dangerous. In Iraq, for example, have fighters of the extremists among the population is mixed. The U.S. government takes on, that IS-chief Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, is said to have temporarily stopped in Baghus, fled to Iraq. But in fact, there is no reliable information about his whereabouts.
The 47-Year-old appears more than ever as a Phantom. As far as is known his only appearance in Public was at the beginning of July 2014, when he demanded from the pulpit of the Al-Nouri mosque in the Northern Iraq city of Mosul in the large from the “obedience” of all Muslims to his “Caliphate” in Syria and Iraq. Several times he was declared already dead.
the speaker of The SDF does not believe that the IS leader is still in Syria. They had “no information about the presence of al Bagdadis,” says Mustefa Bali. But some, who fled from the last IS-Bastion in Baghus, said they had been prompted by al Baghdadi in person.
Even after the defeat in Baghus IS alive
In Iraq could form the IS new. Also in the of the terrorist militia liberated areas in Syria, the danger has not been averted yet. IS-followers have perpetrated several terrorist attacks in which U.S. soldiers have been killed. European States feared that returnees might perpetrate in their home countries for their acts of violence. The “mirror” wrote, in Syria, 59 fighters with German passports, and the women and the children of IS-nationals in detention.
The SDF has been calling for some time that Germany takes its citizens back. But so far, the Federal government found it very difficult to find a solution. Experts say, a law of the state criminal prosecution in Germany is difficult because witnesses to crimes are either still in Syria or dead.
after the defeat in Baghus the IS lives. Outside of the sphere of influence of the USA and the SDF remains of the extremists in an inhospitable area. According to an agreement between Washington and Moscow, the American troops in Syria and their Kurdish allies are in the country East of the Euphrates for the battle against the IS responsible. To the West of the current Russian air force and the Syrian government army to proceed against the jihadists.
That hasn’t happened yet, but everywhere. In a part of the Syrian desert, between the ruined city of Palmyra in the West and Deir al-Zor in the East IS-squads to hide in the wilderness and in caves. In recent times, the Russians and the Syrians flew multiple air strikes against IS positions in the town of al-Sukhnah. Up to 3000 IS fighters to reports, according to unconfirmed media in the area.
A germ cell for a re-birth of the “Caliphate” is not this smattering of associations. They have neither the military capabilities for large-scale attacks around Palmyra, even the sparsely populated desert area can feed a lot of fighters. The IS-troops in the Syrian desert are likely to play as combat units, no longer.
Assad focuses on the situation in the North-West of Syria’s Idlib
Therefore, the question of why the Russian air force and the Syrian army are not taken already against the fighters in the desert. “There can be only one answer: Assad wants to use the IS as a bogeyman,” said Spyros Plakoudas, middle East expert at the American University of the Emirates in Dubai, in an interview with the daily mirror.
Plakoudas suspected that the IS radicals could serve the Syrian President as a Propaganda Instrument. Bashar al Assad wants to make its mark in the international community as a fighter against the last remaining of the IS and help to claim: “Supports me, because I can ensure safety,” loud the message that the wool spread to Damascus.
Therefore, the left fighter in the desert currently, by and Large, in peace. Assad’s government is focused on the situation in the North-West of Syria’s Idlib, the last rebel-held province after eight years of war in Syria. Assad threatens with a large-scale attack, which wants to prevent the neighboring country of Turkey due to the threat of a new wave of refugees.
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the war in Syria, Idlib – dominated by Islamists
Christian Böhme, Thomas Seibert
Assad’s government has declared again and again that they “want to bring every inch” of the territory back under its control. It is only when the Situation in Idlib is clarified, should want Assad to turn to the IS-troops in the desert. For the time being, so the “Islamic state be able to exist” in the Vast expanse of the largest desert areas in the world.
