{"id":25526,"date":"2018-12-14T07:23:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T07:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25526"},"modified":"2018-12-14T07:23:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T07:23:16","slug":"us-backed-syrian-forces-smash-daesh-defenses-in-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25526","title":{"rendered":"US-backed Syrian forces smash Daesh defenses in east"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT: Kurdish-led forces on Thursday moved deep into Hajjin, the main village in the last pocket still held by the Daesh group in eastern Syria, a war monitor said.<\/p>\n

\nThe Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with support from airstrikes conducted by the US-led coalition, deployed across the Euphrates Valley village.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe SDF managed to break the defenses of the Daesh group after massing a large number of fighters backed by the international coalition,\u201d the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThey achieved quick progress inside Hajjin, the largest of the villages that were controlled by IS,\u201d Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based monitoring organization, said.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"The SDF said on social media they had \u201cliberated the city center of Hajjin and the big mosque.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHajjin lies on the east bank of the Euphrates in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border with Iraq.<\/p>\n

\nThe area held by IS is sometimes referred to as the \u201cHajjin pocket,\u201d the last rump of a once-sprawling \u201ccaliphate\u201d the group proclaimed in 2014 over parts of Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

\nObstacles<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nThe SDF Kurdish-Arab alliance launched an operation in September to flush out Daesh but their advance has been fraught with obstacles.<\/p>\n

\nThe push to retake Hajjin was delayed by Turkish threats on Kurdish heartlands further north and deadly counter-attacks by die-hard jihadists making a bloody last stand.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cNow Daesh is confined to tunnels and to the edges of town,\u201d Abdel Rahman said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cFighting on the group and air strikes are continuing. The mines planted by the jihadists are the main remaining obstacle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nNo casualty toll was immediately available for the latest fighting but according to the Observatory close to 500 SDF fighters have been killed since the start of the operation on September 10.<\/p>\n

\nAround 300 civilians have also been killed, many of them in coalition air strikes, and thousands have been forced to flee their homes.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: Kurdish-led forces on Thursday moved deep into Hajjin, the main village in the last pocket still held by the Daesh group in eastern Syria, a war monitor said. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with support from airstrikes conducted by the US-led coalition, deployed across the Euphrates Valley village. \u201cThe SDF managed to break the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}