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.
Hiw many “last villages” there are? US started fighting ISIS in Syria way before Russia came. And still is chasing ISIS on its patch pf controlled territory. While ISIS is gone in the rest of Syria and even Iraqi forces liberated all of their territory all the way up to Syria border. What is wrong with this picture? Is it because Trump unwisely said that after defeating ISIS, US is withdrawing?
Why not subcontract this to Russia, and as Russians can work with Kurds — problem will be solved in a week. Including letting people go from Ruqban refugee camp,,where US and assorted ISIS “refugees” are keeping people in BY FORCE. Syrian Red Cross with the protection of Russian military sent bus convoys to let population get out — but US prevented them from rescuing those that wanted out. Because it would have been a stampede, and such “propaganda” is not allowed.
Couple villages the US needs to rubble.
Oddly, this “it’s the last day, really” reminds me of the Russian fiasco trying to take Grozny during the first (IIRC) war with Chechnya. That dragged out for about a month, with every day being “almost certainly the last day of fighting.”