{"id":34082,"date":"2019-03-04T18:22:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34082"},"modified":"2019-03-04T18:22:09","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T18:22:09","slug":"hundreds-in-syrias-baghouz-surrender-amid-slowdown-in-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34082","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds in Syria’s Baghouz ‘surrender’ amid slowdown in fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Hundreds of people, including ISIL fighters, have surrendered to advancing Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria<\/a> and evacuated the last patch of territory held by the armed group, according to an official.<\/p>\n

Ciyager,\u00a0an official with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL<\/a> or ISIS) group, said approximately 500 people on Monday left the village of Baghouz, in\u00a0Deir Az Zor province.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some 200 more people were expected to leave the enclave\u00a0later on Monday, the official told The Associated Press news agency.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The SDF did not provide an exact figure figure about how many ISIL fighters had surrendered.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“SDF-affiliated media and rebel activists are reporting dozens of ISIL fighters are surrendering; some placed the number at 150 and others at 200,” Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, also said the group that left Baghouz included 150 ISIL fighters.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The evacuation came hours after the SDF announced it was slowing down its push to capture the village to protect civilians who remain there, according to Mostafa Bali, a spokesperson for the group.<\/p>\n

“We are slowing down the offensive in Baghouz due to a small number of civilians held as human shields by Daesh,” Bali said on Twitter, using the Arabic acronym for the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“However, we assert that the battle to retake the last ISIS holdout is going to be over soon.”<\/p>\n

\n

We’re slowing down the offensive in #Baghouz<\/a> due to a small number of civilians held as human shields by Daesh. However we assert that the battle to retake the last ISIS holdout is going to be over soon.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mustafa Bali (@mustefabali) March 3, 2019<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Al Jazeera’s Khodr said it was unclear how many ISIL fighters and civilians remained in Baghouz,\u00a0<\/span>which lies\u00a0<\/span>o<\/span>n the eastern side of the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thousands of civilians have left the village in the past week, said Khodr, and were taken to the “overcrowded” Al Hol camp, now home to more than 55,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They emerged weak, tired and hungry. They had dwindling supplies, and aid agencies in the area have been struggling to feed them,” she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sonia Khush, Syria director for Save the Children, told Al Jazeera that aid agencies were not prepared for the large influx of people that arrived from Baghouz.<\/p>\n

“The needs are immense,” Khush said. “We’re struggling with having enough tents.”<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Smoke and fire billowed from Baghouz on Sunday as Kurdish-led forces backed by US fighter jets rain artillery fire and air raids on ISIL’s last holdout [Delil Souleiman\/ AFP]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On Sunday, the SDF faced landmines, car bombs, tunnel ambushes and suicide attacks as it resumed its final assault on Baghouz.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The offensive had been held up for weeks to allow thousands of people to flee the area. <\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday evening, the SDF said only ISIL fighters remained, but officials on Monday said some more civilians were left.<\/span><\/p>\n

While capturing Baghouz would mark a milestone in the fight against ISIL, the group is expected to remain a security threat as a force with sleeper cells and some pockets of remote territory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people, including ISIL fighters, have surrendered to advancing Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria and evacuated the last patch of territory held by the armed group, according to an official. Ciyager,\u00a0an official with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group, said approximately…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":34083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34082","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\/34082","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=34082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}