Forces eye very last IS bastion in Syria
Syrian and allied forces yesterday converged on holdout Islamic State group fighters in the Syrian border town of Albu Kamal, the jihadists' very last urban bastion following a string of losses.
On Friday Russian-backed Syrian regime forces took full control of Deir Ezzor, which was the last city where IS still had a presence after being expelled from Hawija and Raqa.
The borders of a "caliphate" that three years ago spanned territory in Iraq and Syria roughly the size of Britain further shrank on the group's surviving fighters when Iraqi forces retook Al-Qaim Friday.
The town lies along the Euphrates river in western Iraq and faces Albu Kamal, which is where many of IS's remaining fighters are thought to have regrouped in their debacle.
The Syrian army and allied militia groups were still some 30 kilometres from Albu Kamal but Iraqi paramilitaries crossed the border to take on IS, a report said.
The Euphrates Valley border area was the heart of the "caliphate" IS proclaimed in 2014 and is now its last redoubt, where a US-led coalition supporting the military effort said around 1,500 jihadist fighters remained.
Iraqi forces made light work of Al-Qaim and while Albu Kamal is now the last urban bastion the jihadists have, it is unclear how much resistance they can or intend to put up.
The US-led coalition said anti-IS forces would hunt down jihadists to the last one.
"The coalition must and will deny IS safe haven in Iraq and Syria," spokesman Ryan Dillon told AFP.
As their dream of a jihadist state continues to disintegrate, surviving jihadists are expected to hide in the desert area straddling the border and go dark for some time.
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