mo4ch:>‘Total elimination’ of ISIS in Syria? US-backed forces confirm, Damascus calls it a bluff | Mo4ch News

Published time: 23 Mar, 2019 09:45The Kurdish-led and US-back Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that they crushed the last remaining pocket of jihadist resistance in Syria. Damascus earlier dismissed the celebratory news as a “bluff.”Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) suffered “total elimination” and “a 100 percent territorial defeat,” SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali announced on Saturday. The news came after Kurdish forces reported heavy fighting near Baghouz in northeastern Deir ez-Zor Province, along the Iraqi border.Baghouz was regarded as the last remaining pocket of Islamic State resistance in Syria. The SDF, assisted by US airstrikes, spent the past few months closing in on the militants as its troops were clearing IS holdouts along the Euphrates Valley.As reports of Baghouz being on the verge of complete liberation were coming in, US President Donald Trump rushed to boast of the US-led Coalition’s victories. Earlier this week, he showed reporters a map showcasing how IS-control…