{"id":32303,"date":"2019-02-08T06:23:43","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T06:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32303"},"modified":"2019-02-08T06:23:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T06:23:43","slug":"collapse-of-the-caliphate-daesh-territory-slashed-by-99-5-percent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32303","title":{"rendered":"Collapse of the \u2018caliphate\u2019: Daesh territory slashed by 99.5 percent"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nJEDDAH:\u00a0 The Daesh \u201ccaliphate\u201d that was once the size of Britain has been reduced to a tiny patch of land near a village in eastern Syria, the anti-Daesh coalition said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\nGains by Kurdish-led forces in Syria have shrunk Daesh territory by \u201capproximately 99.5 percent,\u201d said coalition deputy commander Major General Christopher Ghika.<\/p>\n

\nAt its height, the extremist\u00a0proto-state proclaimed by Daesh\u00a0in Syria and Iraq in June 2014 was roughly the size of Britain. But it has since lost most of that territory to various offensives.<\/p>\n

\nThe militants are now clinging on to a small sliver of territory near the village of Baghouz, and many are fleeing or surrendering before a final offensive. Iraqi militias from the Popular Mobilization Forces launched 50 missiles on Thursday at targets in Baghouz.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Militants were \u201ctrying to escape through intermixing with the innocent women and children attempting to flee the fighting,\u201d Gen. Ghika told a coalition ministerial meeting in Washington. \u201cThese tactics won\u2019t succeed. Our Syrian partners are focused on finding Daesh wherever they hide, and our Iraqi partners have secured their borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nSpeaking during the meeting, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir, said: The Kingdom \u201cwill continue its fight against terrorism and its sponsoring countries, and pledge to support all international and regional efforts to eliminate terrorist organizations, terrorism and the activities of destabilizing states in the region.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n“We believe that our war against terrorism must include combating its funding and rhetoric that justifies violence and terrorism. For this reason, my country has established a center to combat terrorism, extremism, and its sources of funding,” he said.<\/p>\n

\n“We also emphasize the importance of continuing this coalition so that we can all ensure an effective and lasting defeat of Daesh, and all terrorist organizations, to prevent them from reappearing again in all parts of the world,” he added.<\/p>\n

\nSaudi Arabia was among the founding members of The Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh (also known as ISIS) back in 2014, and was one of the first countries that participated actively in military operations against the terrorist organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nMore than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of militants, have fled Daesh territory since the coalition\u2019s Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) intensified its offensive in December. The figure is thought to include more than 3,000 Daesh fighters.<\/p>\n

\nAs the \u201ccaliphate\u201d collapses, detention centers and camps in northeast Syria are filling up with fighters who have surrendered or been captured, along with their families.<\/p>\n

\nTens of thousands of foreigners are estimated to have joined Daesh since 2014, and the SDF said they were detaining foreign fighters every day. They are also holding hundreds of women, and children of Daesh fighters, in two camps in the north.<\/p>\n

\nThe Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria has urged the foreigners\u2019 countries of origin to take them back, but they are often reluctant.<\/p>\n

\nFrance has suggested it may take 50 adults and 80 children who are French citizens, but rights groups are concerned about the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nHuman Rights Watch said it wanted clarity on the exact numbers, what route would be used, and whether children would be separated from their parents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JEDDAH:\u00a0 The Daesh \u201ccaliphate\u201d that was once the size of Britain has been reduced to a tiny patch of land near a village in eastern Syria, the anti-Daesh coalition said on Thursday. Gains by Kurdish-led forces in Syria have shrunk Daesh territory by \u201capproximately 99.5 percent,\u201d said coalition deputy commander Major General Christopher Ghika. At…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32303","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\/32303","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=32303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}