Daily Times

The wilted palms and pomegranate trees at the entrance to Baghouz were struggling to survive, much like diehard Islamic State group fighters in the Syrian village.

Pinned down in a patch less than half a square kilometre, the jihadists faced intermittent air strikes by the US-led coalition backing the Syrian Democratic Forces.

On a press tour Saturday organised by the US-backed forces, the street ahead was punched through by massive craters and sprinkled with charred lorries.

“The SDF were here,” read a spray-painted Arabic message on a one-storey house.

Atop a building captured by the SDF, a fighter peered out at columns of smoke from fresh bombardment.

“They fire at us at night, then clashes start before they run away again,” said Hamza Shaddadi, his rifle slung over his shoulder and a walkie-talkie in his hand.

“But we don’t get any closer because of the civilians,” he told AFP.

SDF officials say they have IS surrounded in a tiny part of Baghouz but are holding off on an assault because civilians — including families of IS fighters — are still thought to be inside.

But the town would be cleared “in just a few days”, said Shaddadi, who seemed visibly impatient.

‘More ferocious’

Even in areas already captured from the jihadists, SDF units combed through rubble and ruined houses used as IS bases in search of secret tunnels, sleeper cells, or unexploded ordnance.

SDF fighters, their heads covered in traditional flowered Kurdish scarves, barely flinched at the sound of gunfire further ahead, which was quickly followed by the roar of airplanes and two booming air strikes.

There were no civilians in the homes or in the muddy streets at the entrance to Baghouz, only armoured cars zipping sharply around corners in the crushed town.

It was not the first time the SDF had battled for these neighbourhoods.

After launching their latest offensive against IS in September, their units took Baghouz easily, but IS recaptured it a few weeks later during a storm and dug in.

Diaa Hasakeh was back for the second round, but told AFP the town was now in much worse shape.

“When we took it a few months ago, we’d climb up on the rooftops and pick dates and pomegranates,” said Diaa Hasakeh, a bespectacled fighter who fought in the first round and is back for the final battle.

Published in Daily Times, February 18^th 2019.