US-backed Syria force says time up for IS ‘to surrender’

10 March 2019, 6:27 pm

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US-backed forces say time is up for Islamic State group jihadists hunkering down in their eastern Syrian holdout and an assault was imminent.

“The timeline (we gave) ISIS to surrender themselves is over,” Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Mustefa Bali says on Twitter, using another acronym for IS.

“Our forces have received orders for military action to finish off what is left of the terrorists in Baghouz,” a village near the Iraqi border, he says. “The assault will start at any moment.”

Young children look at a member of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) after leaving the Islamic State (IS) group’s last holdout of Baghouz, in Syria’s northern Deir Ezzor province on February 27, 2019. (Bulent KILIC / AFP)

The SDF, who are backed by airstrikes of the US-led coalition, have slowed down their months-long campaign against the jihadists in recent weeks to allow civilians out of the shrinking enclave.

— AFP