DEIR AL-ZOR PROVINCE: The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces will resume their assault on Daesh's last enclave in eastern Syria if no more civilians or fighters emerge by Saturday afternoon, a spokesman for the group said on Friday.
Mustafa Bali said nobody had come out of Baghouz since Thursday. The SDF announced it was launching a final battle for the enclave last month but has slowed its attack to allow civilians to leave. Thousands of civilians and fighters had emerged earlier this week.
"We are waiting for tomorrow morning or perhaps until the afternoon, we'll give another space, for the possibility that civilians are present and the chance to get them out," he said.
After that, "if no civilian or terrorist comes out, we will launch our military operation anew."
The capture of Baghouz will mark the end of Daesh's territorial rule over populated areas of Iraq and Syria, and the culmination of a US-backed military campaign waged by the SDF for four years.
After suddenly seizing swathes of land straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border in 2014 and declaring it their caliphate, Daesh were beaten back by numerous local and foreign forces in both countries, suffering major defeats in 2017.
However, the extremists remain a menace. In Iraq they have gone to ground, staging waves of killings and kidnappings. In Syria, their comrades hold out in remote desert areas and have carried out bombings in areas controlled by the SDF.
Those who have fled Baghouz have mostly gone to Al-Hol, a displacement camp in northeast Syria whose population has swelled to 62,000 people, 90 percent of them women and children.
