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Syria IS holding 1,000 civilians

February 18, 2019 00:00:00


DAMASCUS: President Bashar al-Assad delivering a speech at a meeting for the heads of local councils in the capital Damascus on Sunday — AFP

AL-OMAR OIL FIELD BASE, Feb 17 (Agencies): The US-backed Syrian militia fighting the Islamic State in its last toehold in Syria says there are over 1,000 civilians trapped in the tiny area and that the militant group is preventing them from leaving.

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, tells The Associated Press Sunday that IS has closed all the roads in and out.

SDF officials have said the extremists are hiding among civilians in a tented village and using a network of caves and tunnels. IS, which once ruled a proto-state in large parts of Syria and Iraq, is clinging to an area less than a square kilometer (square mile) in the village of Baghouz, in eastern Syria.

The extremists may include high-level commanders, and could be holding hostages.

Meanwhile, President Trump has told the UK and other European allies to take back and put on trial more than 800 Islamic State (IS) group fighters captured in the final battle against the group.

His tweet comes as US-backed Kurdish forces continue an assault on the last pocket of IS territory on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border.

The IS fighters are being held by the Kurdish-led forces.

Mr Trump added that the IS caliphate was "ready to fall."

"The US does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go. We do so much, and spend so much - Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing", he said in a tweet.

Otherwise, he said, the US would be forced to release them.

Trump administration officials have also told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that they fear some of the detained soldiers would put European countries at risk unless they are brought to justice.

Mr Trump's remarks echo those made by the UK's foreign intelligence chief on Friday, who warned that the Islamic State group is reorganising for more attacks despite its military defeat in Syria.


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