ISIS forces in and around the village of Baghouz have launched a pair of counteroffensives against US-backed Kurdish SDF forces in the area. The attacks began with a series of suicide bombings, and led to a firefight.
The SDF said ISIS was trying to take advantage of the smoke and dust in the area to launch a surprise attack. They presented this as a failure, however, and said that there were no casualties from the suicide attacks.
Fighting isn’t over, however, and while the SDF admitted as much in their statement, they insisted that ISIS “made no progress so far” and that they had effectively been thwarted. SDF claims that ISIS counterattacks failed are common.
But sometimes those claims, like SDF claims that Baghouz itself will fall in a matter of days, are far more premature. ISIS has consistently shown an ability to launch successful counteroffensives when necessary to prevent an outright defeat, and has picked periods when cloud or smoke-cover prevented US warplanes from getting involved.
ISIS Launches Counterattack Around Last Village of Baghouz
US-backed forces downplay fighting, saying ISIS made no progress
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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