At least 50 Syrian soldiers have been killed in attacks carried out by Islamic State and al Qaeda in the last few days, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday.

According to Al Jazeera, IS on Thursday attacked Syrian forces in central Homs. The clash lasted two days leaving 27 soldiers dead till Saturday.

The IS has lost its territory in Syria in March, however, fighters remain active in the desert where they have taken refuge and increasingly target government troops and allies` militia.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last month announced that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) has lost its last stronghold, Baghouz, in eastern Syria.

"Syrian Democratic Forces declare total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100 per cent territorial defeat of ISIS. On this unique day, we commemorate thousands of martyrs whose efforts made victory possible," tweeted Mustafa Bali, head of SDF press office.

The terror group had once controlled vast territories of land stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq.

At least 50 Syrian soldiers have been killed in attacks carried out by Islamic State and al Qaeda in the last few days, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday.

At least 50 Syrian soldiers have been killed in attacks carried out by Islamic State and al Qaeda in the last few days, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday. According to Al Jazeera, IS on Thursday attacked Syrian forces in central Homs. The clash lasted two days leaving 27 soldiers dead till Saturday. The IS has lost its territory in Syria in March, however, fighters remain active in the desert where they have taken refuge and increasingly target government troops and allies` militia. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last month announced that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) has lost its last stronghold, Baghouz, in eastern Syria. "Syrian Democratic Forces declare total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100 per cent territorial defeat of ISIS. On this unique day, we commemorate thousands of martyrs whose efforts made victory possible," tweeted Mustafa Bali, head of SDF press office. The terror group had once controlled vast territories of land stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq.

50 Syrian soldiers killed in Islamic State attacks

By Harout Akdedian

The so-called Islamic State (IS) recently lost its last remnant of territory in Syria, but observers were quick to remind the world that the war against the organisation is far from over. What then does this loss of territorial control actually mean for IS?

At its height, the self-proclaimed “caliphate” controlled an estimated 34,000 square miles across Syria and Iraq, so its defeat on the ground is clearly a severe blow for it. Nevertheless, IS is now expected to evolve. Its networks will disperse into virtual, online spaces and become largely invisible. It will focus on insurgency tactics and terror attacks with a wider reach.

In the face of this evolution, it may seem like maintaining IS in a contained geographic pocket would have been better than eradicating its primary territorial base altogether.

With its defeat on the ground in Syria and Iraq, however, IS and its offshoots will have a more limited capacity for recruitment, indoctrination and growth.

The importance of territory

The success of rebel groups to survive protracted armed conflicts is dependent on their ability to maintain territorial control. They require it to extract resources and enlist local recruits.

Territorial control allows armed groups to force local populations into compliance and conformity with their ideological outlook. Since its inception, IS understood that its radical “Islamic” community does not locally exist. Instead, the organisation set about creating it, reshaping communities under its control in its own image.

Comparative evidence from civil wars around the world demonstrates how territorial control does not depend on a local population’s ideological agreement with the forces in place. Instead, in his book The Logic of Violence in Civil War, Stathis Kalyvas argues that a combination of coercive measures and local administrative bodies allows a force to maintain order, stability and compliance.

For example, during the Liberian civil war in the early 1990s, NPFL (The National Patriotic Front of Liberia) rebels, led by Charles Taylor, used administrative bodies and courts in the territory they controlled to create an alternative order backed up by displays of brutality and violence. This led to an intricate system of patronage and loyalty that created new dependencies between local communities and the new regime.

These Taylor-era Liberian courts are comparable to IS’s religious courts which controlled the issuing of permits for cross border activities, defined the educational content of local schools, distributed social services – and carried out extreme public punishments.

In enduring armed conflict, these administrative bodies, social services and displays of order encourage the cooperation of the local population. In other words, territorial control allows the occupier to manage the behaviour and, potentially, the ideology of the people under its control.

Instruments of control

Under IS, spectacles of brutality and violence were a key part of this. Public executions involved people being incinerated, stoned, decapitated and thrown off towers. Staged in front of local people, these executions were carefully choreographed and meticulously documented and disseminated – both locally and internationally.

IS explicitly claimed that these acts of brutality were intended to create a vacuum by disrupting local societal structures that could then be “filled” and “managed” by them. Essentially, displays of violence were used as an instrument of social organisation.

Data personally collected between 2012 and 2014 shows that many living under the rule of radicalised groups such as IS judge these groups based on their own immediate day-to-day conditions rather than the organisation’s overall performance or outlook.

If administrative structures function and people have access to food and basic services, for example, local populations may overlook – or even adhere to – the occupying force’s ideology (albeit under duress). And those that don’t are severely and publicly punished as an “example” to others.

The 2014 executions of members of the Sunni Arab al-Sheitaat tribe, in Deir el-Zor, Syria, are a case in point. IS took the lives of more than 700 of its members for revoking a pledge of allegiance. In addition, IS incessantly targeted other Jihadi or predominantly Sunni rebel formations. Indeed, the tally of those killed continues to increase as more mass graves are discovered.

Violent consolidation 
 
Such atrocities were examples of IS consolidating its power through the elimination of rivals and the suppression of potential or real dissent within its area of control. Faced with this, local populations had no choice but to imitate expressions of religiosity as defined by IS and to demonstrate compliance. For local people, this was a method of adaptation and survival – but IS’s loss of territorial control now greatly reduces its capacity to control and indoctrinate local residents in this way.

The question of how IS’s methods impacted local populations, in the long run, is yet to be answered. A lot will depend on what happens next in its former territory and to those living there now.

Either way, while IS is badly incapacitated, it certainly is not finished. It will most likely splinter into new organisations which might try to establish territorial control elsewhere. Parts of North Africa and the Maghreb are particularly susceptible, where control over vast swathes of land remain contested. In the meantime, IS will continue to try to nurture its virtual communities and seek new audiences online.

(Harout Akdedian is Carnegie SFM Postdoctoral fellow, Central European University)

(This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/islamic-state-the-caliphate-is-off-the-map-for-now-but-will-evolve-in-dangerous-ways-114831">original article</a>)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

By Harout Akdedian The so-called Islamic State (IS) recently lost its last remnant of territory in Syria, but observers were quick to remind the world that the war against the organisation is far from over.

By Harout Akdedian The so-called Islamic State (IS) recently lost its last remnant of territory in Syria, but observers were quick to remind the world that the war against the organisation is far from over. What then does this loss of territorial control actually mean for IS? At its height, the self-proclaimed “caliphate” controlled an estimated 34,000 square miles across Syria and Iraq, so its defeat on the ground is clearly a severe blow for it. Nevertheless, IS is now expected to evolve. Its networks will disperse into virtual, online spaces and become largely invisible. It will focus on insurgency tactics and terror attacks with a wider reach. In the face of this evolution, it may seem like maintaining IS in a contained geographic pocket would have been better than eradicating its primary territorial base altogether. With its defeat on the ground in Syria and Iraq, however, IS and its offshoots will have a more limited capacity for recruitment, indoctrination and growth. The importance of territory The success of rebel groups to survive protracted armed conflicts is dependent on their ability to maintain territorial control. They require it to extract resources and enlist local recruits. Territorial control allows armed groups to force local populations into compliance and conformity with their ideological outlook. Since its inception, IS understood that its radical “Islamic” community does not locally exist. Instead, the organisation set about creating it, reshaping communities under its control in its own image. Comparative evidence from civil wars around the world demonstrates how territorial control does not depend on a local population’s ideological agreement with the forces in place. Instead, in his book The Logic of Violence in Civil War, Stathis Kalyvas argues that a combination of coercive measures and local administrative bodies allows a force to maintain order, stability and compliance. For example, during the Liberian civil war in the early 1990s, NPFL (The National Patriotic Front of Liberia) rebels, led by Charles Taylor, used administrative bodies and courts in the territory they controlled to create an alternative order backed up by displays of brutality and violence. This led to an intricate system of patronage and loyalty that created new dependencies between local communities and the new regime. These Taylor-era Liberian courts are comparable to IS’s religious courts which controlled the issuing of permits for cross border activities, defined the educational content of local schools, distributed social services – and carried out extreme public punishments. In enduring armed conflict, these administrative bodies, social services and displays of order encourage the cooperation of the local population. In other words, territorial control allows the occupier to manage the behaviour and, potentially, the ideology of the people under its control. Instruments of control Under IS, spectacles of brutality and violence were a key part of this. Public executions involved people being incinerated, stoned, decapitated and thrown off towers. Staged in front of local people, these executions were carefully choreographed and meticulously documented and disseminated – both locally and internationally. IS explicitly claimed that these acts of brutality were intended to create a vacuum by disrupting local societal structures that could then be “filled” and “managed” by them. Essentially, displays of violence were used as an instrument of social organisation. Data personally collected between 2012 and 2014 shows that many living under the rule of radicalised groups such as IS judge these groups based on their own immediate day-to-day conditions rather than the organisation’s overall performance or outlook. If administrative structures function and people have access to food and basic services, for example, local populations may overlook – or even adhere to – the occupying force’s ideology (albeit under duress). And those that don’t are severely and publicly punished as an “example” to others. The 2014 executions of members of the Sunni Arab al-Sheitaat tribe, in Deir el-Zor, Syria, are a case in point. IS took the lives of more than 700 of its members for revoking a pledge of allegiance. In addition, IS incessantly targeted other Jihadi or predominantly Sunni rebel formations. Indeed, the tally of those killed continues to increase as more mass graves are discovered. Violent consolidation Such atrocities were examples of IS consolidating its power through the elimination of rivals and the suppression of potential or real dissent within its area of control. Faced with this, local populations had no choice but to imitate expressions of religiosity as defined by IS and to demonstrate compliance. For local people, this was a method of adaptation and survival – but IS’s loss of territorial control now greatly reduces its capacity to control and indoctrinate local residents in this way. The question of how IS’s methods impacted local populations, in the long run, is yet to be answered. A lot will depend on what happens next in its former territory and to those living there now. Either way, while IS is badly incapacitated, it certainly is not finished. It will most likely splinter into new organisations which might try to establish territorial control elsewhere. Parts of North Africa and the Maghreb are particularly susceptible, where control over vast swathes of land remain contested. In the meantime, IS will continue to try to nurture its virtual communities and seek new audiences online. (Harout Akdedian is Carnegie SFM Postdoctoral fellow, Central European University) (This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

Islamic State is off the map for now, but war against the organisation is far from over

Afghan security forces have arrested six alleged members of the Islamic State militant group and accused them of using hundreds of fake accounts on Facebook Inc and other social media to find recruits, authorities said on Thursday.

The men, arrested in the capital, Kabul, also used Twitter Inc, Instagram and Telegram for fake accounts recruiting fighters and promoting Islamic State, Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) said.

The agency said the men had confessed, but have not yet been charged. They were among 16 arrests it said were connected to Islamic State.

The arrests come as Facebook and Twitter have been separately sucked into an information war between India and Pakistan.

The Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has recruited many fighters from around the world, including Western countries.

The group, also known as Daesh, has been active in Afghanistan since 2015, fighting the Taliban as well as Afghan and U.S. forces.

In a separate operation in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the NDS arrested 10 suspects over involvement in assassinations and transporting weapons, ammunition and explosives, it said in the statement.

Islamic State emerged in Nangarhar on the porous border with Pakistan to become one of Afghanistan's most dangerous militant groups for its bombing and complex attacks.

It is difficult to say how many Islamic State fighters are in Afghanistan because they frequently switch allegiances, but the U.S. military estimates there are about 2,000.

U.S.-backed forces proclaimed the capture of Islamic State's last territory in Syria last month, eliminating its rule over a self-proclaimed "caliphate", but the jihadists remain a threat from sleeper cells around the world.

Afghan security forces have arrested six alleged members of the Islamic State militant group and accused them of using hundreds of fake accounts on Facebook Inc and other social media to find recruits, authorities said on Thursday.

Afghan security forces have arrested six alleged members of the Islamic State militant group and accused them of using hundreds of fake accounts on Facebook Inc and other social media to find recruits, authorities said on Thursday. The men, arrested in the capital, Kabul, also used Twitter Inc, Instagram and Telegram for fake accounts recruiting fighters and promoting Islamic State, Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) said. The agency said the men had confessed, but have not yet been charged. They were among 16 arrests it said were connected to Islamic State. The arrests come as Facebook and Twitter have been separately sucked into an information war between India and Pakistan. The Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has recruited many fighters from around the world, including Western countries. The group, also known as Daesh, has been active in Afghanistan since 2015, fighting the Taliban as well as Afghan and U.S. forces. In a separate operation in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the NDS arrested 10 suspects over involvement in assassinations and transporting weapons, ammunition and explosives, it said in the statement. Islamic State emerged in Nangarhar on the porous border with Pakistan to become one of Afghanistan's most dangerous militant groups for its bombing and complex attacks. It is difficult to say how many Islamic State fighters are in Afghanistan because they frequently switch allegiances, but the U.S. military estimates there are about 2,000. U.S.-backed forces proclaimed the capture of Islamic State's last territory in Syria last month, eliminating its rule over a self-proclaimed "caliphate", but the jihadists remain a threat from sleeper cells around the world.

Afghan forces arrest alleged Islamic State online recruiters: Report

President Donald Trump hailed the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-ally-declares-islamic-state-defeated-caliphate-eliminated-205019">end of the Islamic State group's "caliphate" Saturday</a>, vowing that the United States would remain "vigilant" against the diehard jihadists.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces' victory in the remote riverside village of Baghouz, where IS made its last stand, capped a six-month operation against the final remnants of IS-controlled territory that once stretched across a vast swathe of Iraq and Syria, with seven million people in its sway.

"We will remain vigilant... until it is finally defeated wherever it operates," Trump said of IS in a statement.

"The United States will defend American interests whenever and wherever necessary. We will continue to work with our partners and allies to totally crush radical Islamic terrorists."

Trump also had a warning for youths who can easily be swayed.

"To all of the young people on the internet believing in ISIS's Propaganda, you will be dead if you join. Think instead about having a great life," he said, using an alternative acronym for the jihadist movement.

Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan welcomed the "critical milestone," but warned that "our work is far from complete."

"We will continue our work with the global coalition to deny ISIS safe haven anywhere in the world," he said.

"We remain committed to ISIS's enduring defeat and we are confident that we will prevail."

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, Jr added that "the US military remains committed to working closely with our Coalition and regional partners to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS."

The jihadists retain a presence in eastern Syria's vast Badia desert and various other hideouts from which they could wage the kind of deadly guerrilla insurgency that accompanied the rise of IS.

While the geographic caliphate has been dismantled, analysts warn remnants of the group can melt back into the population while seeking to convert others to their ideology.

The sanctioned individuals include people who work with the Shahid Karimi Group, which the Treasury Department said focused on missile and explosives projects for SPND, and the Shahid Chamran Group, which researches electromagnetics and wave generation.

The US official said that the SPND was still in place and headed by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a physicist identified by US and Israeli intelligence as the aspiring father of Iran's nuclear bomb.

"It's as if some evil version of Robert Oppenheimer had been kept in charge of keeping the Manhattan Project crew together years afterwards," the official said, referring to the founder of the US nuclear program in World War II.

President Donald Trump hailed the end of the Islamic State group's "caliphate" Saturday, vowing that the United States would remain "vigilant" against the diehard jihadists.

President Donald Trump hailed the end of the Islamic State group's "caliphate" Saturday, vowing that the United States would remain "vigilant" against the diehard jihadists. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces' victory in the remote riverside village of Baghouz, where IS made its last stand, capped a six-month operation against the final remnants of IS-controlled territory that once stretched across a vast swathe of Iraq and Syria, with seven million people in its sway. "We will remain vigilant... until it is finally defeated wherever it operates," Trump said of IS in a statement. "The United States will defend American interests whenever and wherever necessary. We will continue to work with our partners and allies to totally crush radical Islamic terrorists." Trump also had a warning for youths who can easily be swayed. "To all of the young people on the internet believing in ISIS's Propaganda, you will be dead if you join. Think instead about having a great life," he said, using an alternative acronym for the jihadist movement. Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan welcomed the "critical milestone," but warned that "our work is far from complete." "We will continue our work with the global coalition to deny ISIS safe haven anywhere in the world," he said. "We remain committed to ISIS's enduring defeat and we are confident that we will prevail." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, Jr added that "the US military remains committed to working closely with our Coalition and regional partners to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS." The jihadists retain a presence in eastern Syria's vast Badia desert and various other hideouts from which they could wage the kind of deadly guerrilla insurgency that accompanied the rise of IS. While the geographic caliphate has been dismantled, analysts warn remnants of the group can melt back into the population while seeking to convert others to their ideology. The sanctioned individuals include people who work with the Shahid Karimi Group, which the Treasury Department said focused on missile and explosives projects for SPND, and the Shahid Chamran Group, which researches electromagnetics and wave generation. The US official said that the SPND was still in place and headed by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a physicist identified by US and Israeli intelligence as the aspiring father of Iran's nuclear bomb. "It's as if some evil version of Robert Oppenheimer had been kept in charge of keeping the Manhattan Project crew together years afterwards," the official said, referring to the founder of the US nuclear program in World War II.

Trump hails end of IS 'caliphate,' vows to remain 'vigilant'

Islamic State has been defeated at its final shred of territory of Baghouz in Syria, the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-backed-syrian-forces-fight-last-islamic-state-jihadists-204983">US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces</a> (SDF) said on Saturday, announcing the end of its self-declared "caliphate" that once spanned a third of Iraq and Syria.

The SDF declared the "total elimination of (the) so-called caliphate", Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF media office, wrote on Twitter.

"Baghouz has been liberated. The military victory against Daesh has been accomplished," he wrote.

The SDF has been battling to capture Baghouz at the Iraqi border for weeks.

Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. "We renew our pledge to continue the war and to pursue their remnants until their complete elimination," he wrote.

Though the defeat of Islamic State at Baghouz ends the group's grip over the jihadist quasi-state straddling Syria and Iraq that it declared in 2014, it remains a threat.

Some of its fighters still hold out in Syria's remote central desert and in Iraqi cities they have slipped into the shadows, staging sudden shootings or kidnappings and awaiting a chance to rise again.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/syria-slams-trump-vows-to-recover-israeli-occupied-golan-204839">The United States</a> believes the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is in Iraq. He stood at the pulpit of the great medieval mosque in Mosul in 2014 to declare himself caliph, sovereign over all Muslims.

Further afield, jihadists in Afghanistan, Nigeria and elsewhere have shown no sign of recanting their allegiance to Islamic State, and intelligence services say its devotees in the West might plot new attacks.

The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja'afari, said on Friday Islamic State was not yet finished in Syria, adding that it was the Damascus government backed by Russia and Iran that was genuinely battling it, not the United States.

Still, the fall of Baghouz is a big milestone in a fight against the jihadist group waged by numerous local and global forces - some of them sworn enemies - over more than four years.

It also marks a big moment in Syria's eight-year war, wiping out the territory of one of the main contestants, with the rest split between President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey-backed rebels and the Kurdish-led SDF.

Assad and his Iranian allies have sworn to recapture all Syria, and Turkey has threatened to drive out the SDF, which it sees as a terrorist group, by force. The continued presence of US troops in northeast Syria might avert this.

Grisly rule

Islamic State originated as an al Qaeda faction in Iraq, but it took advantage of Syria's civil war to seize land there and split from the global jihadist organisation.

In 2014, it suddenly grabbed Iraq's Mosul, one of the region's great historic cities, as well as Syria's Raqqa, and swathes of land each side of the border.

It declared an end to modern countries and called on supporters to leave their homes and join the jihadist utopia it claimed to be erecting, trumpeting its currency, flag, passports and military parades.

Oil production, extortion and antiquities smuggling financed its agenda, which included the slaughter of some minorities, public slave auctions of captured women, grotesque punishments for minor crimes and the choreographed killing of hostages.

Those excesses brought an array of forces against it, forcing it from Mosul and Raqqa in a year of heavy defeats in 2017 and driving it, eventually, down the Euphrates to Baghouz.

Over the past two months some 60,000 people poured out of that dwindling enclave, fleeing SDF bombardment and a shortage of food so severe that some said they were reduced to cooking grass.

A mass grave the SDF discovered there last month showed there were other dangers in the enclave, though it has released no details on the identities of the victims or how they died.

Civilians made up more than half the people leaving Baghouz, the SDF said, including Islamic State victims such as women from the Iraqi Yazidi sect whom the jihadists had sexually enslaved.

Thousands of the group's unbending supporters also abandoned the enclave while still vowing their allegiance to a ruined caliphate and showing no remorse for its victims.

At displacement camps in northeast Syria where they were sent by the SDF, the hardliners, including many foreign women who came to Syria and Iraq to marry jihadists, had to be kept away from other, often traumatized, residents.

Their fate has befuddled foreign governments, who see them as a security threat and are loath to accede to SDF entreaties to take them back home.

Defeat

As the fighting progressed in recent weeks, the convoys of trucks from Baghouz started to include hundreds, and then thousands, of surrendering jihadist fighters, many hobbling from their wounds.

The SDF said it captured hundreds more in recent weeks who tried to slip through its cordon and escape into Iraq or across the Euphrates and into the Syrian desert.

At the end, they were besieged in a tiny camp full of rusting vehicles and makeshift shelters, pinned against the Euphrates and overlooked by hills held by the SDF.

Islamic State released video from inside that miserable, shell-pounded enclave, showing its last fighters still shooting at the SDF as smoke billowed overhead.

It was an attempt to shape the narrative of its defeat, portraying it as a heroic last stand against overwhelming odds and a call to arms for future jihadists.

But the footage shown by the SDF in recent weeks was of long lines of abject, surrendering fighters, sitting or squatting in a desolate landscape, their dreams dashed.

Islamic State has been defeated at its final shred of territory of Baghouz in Syria, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Saturday, announcing the end of its self-declared "caliphate" that once spanned a third of Iraq and Syria.

Islamic State has been defeated at its final shred of territory of Baghouz in Syria, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Saturday, announcing the end of its self-declared "caliphate" that once spanned a third of Iraq and Syria. The SDF declared the "total elimination of (the) so-called caliphate", Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF media office, wrote on Twitter. "Baghouz has been liberated. The military victory against Daesh has been accomplished," he wrote. The SDF has been battling to capture Baghouz at the Iraqi border for weeks. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. "We renew our pledge to continue the war and to pursue their remnants until their complete elimination," he wrote. Though the defeat of Islamic State at Baghouz ends the group's grip over the jihadist quasi-state straddling Syria and Iraq that it declared in 2014, it remains a threat. Some of its fighters still hold out in Syria's remote central desert and in Iraqi cities they have slipped into the shadows, staging sudden shootings or kidnappings and awaiting a chance to rise again. The United States believes the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is in Iraq. He stood at the pulpit of the great medieval mosque in Mosul in 2014 to declare himself caliph, sovereign over all Muslims. Further afield, jihadists in Afghanistan, Nigeria and elsewhere have shown no sign of recanting their allegiance to Islamic State, and intelligence services say its devotees in the West might plot new attacks. The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja'afari, said on Friday Islamic State was not yet finished in Syria, adding that it was the Damascus government backed by Russia and Iran that was genuinely battling it, not the United States. Still, the fall of Baghouz is a big milestone in a fight against the jihadist group waged by numerous local and global forces - some of them sworn enemies - over more than four years. It also marks a big moment in Syria's eight-year war, wiping out the territory of one of the main contestants, with the rest split between President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey-backed rebels and the Kurdish-led SDF. Assad and his Iranian allies have sworn to recapture all Syria, and Turkey has threatened to drive out the SDF, which it sees as a terrorist group, by force. The continued presence of US troops in northeast Syria might avert this. Grisly rule Islamic State originated as an al Qaeda faction in Iraq, but it took advantage of Syria's civil war to seize land there and split from the global jihadist organisation. In 2014, it suddenly grabbed Iraq's Mosul, one of the region's great historic cities, as well as Syria's Raqqa, and swathes of land each side of the border. It declared an end to modern countries and called on supporters to leave their homes and join the jihadist utopia it claimed to be erecting, trumpeting its currency, flag, passports and military parades. Oil production, extortion and antiquities smuggling financed its agenda, which included the slaughter of some minorities, public slave auctions of captured women, grotesque punishments for minor crimes and the choreographed killing of hostages. Those excesses brought an array of forces against it, forcing it from Mosul and Raqqa in a year of heavy defeats in 2017 and driving it, eventually, down the Euphrates to Baghouz. Over the past two months some 60,000 people poured out of that dwindling enclave, fleeing SDF bombardment and a shortage of food so severe that some said they were reduced to cooking grass. A mass grave the SDF discovered there last month showed there were other dangers in the enclave, though it has released no details on the identities of the victims or how they died. Civilians made up more than half the people leaving Baghouz, the SDF said, including Islamic State victims such as women from the Iraqi Yazidi sect whom the jihadists had sexually enslaved. Thousands of the group's unbending supporters also abandoned the enclave while still vowing their allegiance to a ruined caliphate and showing no remorse for its victims. At displacement camps in northeast Syria where they were sent by the SDF, the hardliners, including many foreign women who came to Syria and Iraq to marry jihadists, had to be kept away from other, often traumatized, residents. Their fate has befuddled foreign governments, who see them as a security threat and are loath to accede to SDF entreaties to take them back home. Defeat As the fighting progressed in recent weeks, the convoys of trucks from Baghouz started to include hundreds, and then thousands, of surrendering jihadist fighters, many hobbling from their wounds. The SDF said it captured hundreds more in recent weeks who tried to slip through its cordon and escape into Iraq or across the Euphrates and into the Syrian desert. At the end, they were besieged in a tiny camp full of rusting vehicles and makeshift shelters, pinned against the Euphrates and overlooked by hills held by the SDF. Islamic State released video from inside that miserable, shell-pounded enclave, showing its last fighters still shooting at the SDF as smoke billowed overhead. It was an attempt to shape the narrative of its defeat, portraying it as a heroic last stand against overwhelming odds and a call to arms for future jihadists. But the footage shown by the SDF in recent weeks was of long lines of abject, surrendering fighters, sitting or squatting in a desolate landscape, their dreams dashed.

Syrian Democratic Forces claims Islamic State defeated

The<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-ally-declares-islamic-state-defeated-caliphate-eliminated-205019"> Islamic State may have lost its self-styled caliphate</a>, but its barbaric back catalogue of grisly execution videos will continue to haunt the global imagination and serve as a template for how to sow terror, analysts say.

At the height of its reign over a vast chunk of Iraq and Syria in 2014-2015, the Sunni jihadist group had a huge digital footprint, flooding social media with slick videos lionising their fighters and showing the gruesome executions of "infidel" soldiers and civilians.

Today, its once-sophisticated propaganda machine, like its proto-state, has been reduced to rubble.

But the images of a Syrian soldier being crushed with a tank, a Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage, and countless other IS atrocities, including Western reporters and aid workers being beheaded, will endure.

"It clearly will stick with us, rather like how Al Qaeda stuck with us persistently even after Osama bin Laden was killed," Charlie Winter, senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King's College London, told AFP.

Propaganda pioneer

The group was not the first to use gore as a propaganda tool, with al-Qaeda releasing a video of the beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002 and Mexican drug cartels also regularly sharing decapitation videos.

But IS's Hollywood-style action clips -- and use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the encrypted service Telegram to reach millions of viewers -- took graphic terror videos&nbsp;into the mainstream.

IS invested "a lot more time, a lot more money, a lot more energy, and a lot more human capital in the production of propaganda than other groups have before it," Winter said.

"It was the pioneer in terms of really upscaling and industrialising the production of propaganda."

Analysts say the group was particularly savvy in its use of social media to cement the radicalisation of thousands of disenfranchised Muslim youths by projecting an image of invincibility on the battlefield.

To expand its audience, it piggybacked on popular hashtags on social media, such as those linked to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and one linked to singer Justin Bieber.

And while the videos and pictures of crucifixions and decapitations dominated international headlines, other IS videos tried to show a softer side of life in the caliphate.

"Most of the videos, and broadly, most of the web content produced by ISIS at the time, were actually utopian content, trying to show that they were trying to build a utopian state, a utopian society," Marc Hecker, foreign policy expert at the French Institute for International Affairs told AFP.

'Frontline selfies'

Foreign fighters were also the forefront of the propaganda drive, snapping grinning selfies of themselves with assault rifles slung across their chests, on what David Thomson, author of a bestselling book of interviews with French jihadists, called their "LOL jihad".

Pointing to the likes of Junaid Hussain, a young British hacker who enlisted and died in Iraq, Raffaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at RUSI, noted, "Their communications people were kids in their twenties operating in a terror group the way they do back home."

"They weren't doing anything exceptional."

Their social media presence made IS propagandists a prime target for international intelligence agencies, with a US airstrike killing IS spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani in northern Syria in August 2016 and another hit taking out its media centre in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Under pressure from Western governments, Facebook, Twitter also clamped down on jihadist propaganda, establishing filters on violent content that IS and other terror groups struggle to circumvent.

These days IS propagandists mostly use the "dark web" -- a heavily encrypted part of the internet which is almost impossible to regulate, or the Telegram app -- to encourage supporters to launch attacks on their own initiative.

A research note in November from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think-tank, said the group retained a "digital caliphate" to support its insurgency in other countries.

Noting its launch of a new series of weekly videos providing statistics on purported IS activity across the world, author Maxwell B. Markusen noted, "This propaganda effort also may indicate an ongoing effort to over-emphasise its real role on the battlefield, and to recruit new fighters."

Winter described the group's impact on terrorist propaganda as "enormous".&nbsp;

"It has globalised its ideology in a way that was never really feasible before. And that will definitely stand to have an impact in how the global insurgency in terms of jihadists will look for years to come," he said.

The Islamic State may have lost its self-styled caliphate, but its barbaric back catalogue of grisly execution videos will continue to haunt the global imagination and serve as a template for how to sow terror, analysts say.

The Islamic State may have lost its self-styled caliphate, but its barbaric back catalogue of grisly execution videos will continue to haunt the global imagination and serve as a template for how to sow terror, analysts say. At the height of its reign over a vast chunk of Iraq and Syria in 2014-2015, the Sunni jihadist group had a huge digital footprint, flooding social media with slick videos lionising their fighters and showing the gruesome executions of "infidel" soldiers and civilians. Today, its once-sophisticated propaganda machine, like its proto-state, has been reduced to rubble. But the images of a Syrian soldier being crushed with a tank, a Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage, and countless other IS atrocities, including Western reporters and aid workers being beheaded, will endure. "It clearly will stick with us, rather like how Al Qaeda stuck with us persistently even after Osama bin Laden was killed," Charlie Winter, senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King's College London, told AFP. Propaganda pioneer The group was not the first to use gore as a propaganda tool, with al-Qaeda releasing a video of the beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002 and Mexican drug cartels also regularly sharing decapitation videos. But IS's Hollywood-style action clips -- and use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the encrypted service Telegram to reach millions of viewers -- took graphic terror videos into the mainstream. IS invested "a lot more time, a lot more money, a lot more energy, and a lot more human capital in the production of propaganda than other groups have before it," Winter said. "It was the pioneer in terms of really upscaling and industrialising the production of propaganda." Analysts say the group was particularly savvy in its use of social media to cement the radicalisation of thousands of disenfranchised Muslim youths by projecting an image of invincibility on the battlefield. To expand its audience, it piggybacked on popular hashtags on social media, such as those linked to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and one linked to singer Justin Bieber. And while the videos and pictures of crucifixions and decapitations dominated international headlines, other IS videos tried to show a softer side of life in the caliphate. "Most of the videos, and broadly, most of the web content produced by ISIS at the time, were actually utopian content, trying to show that they were trying to build a utopian state, a utopian society," Marc Hecker, foreign policy expert at the French Institute for International Affairs told AFP. 'Frontline selfies' Foreign fighters were also the forefront of the propaganda drive, snapping grinning selfies of themselves with assault rifles slung across their chests, on what David Thomson, author of a bestselling book of interviews with French jihadists, called their "LOL jihad". Pointing to the likes of Junaid Hussain, a young British hacker who enlisted and died in Iraq, Raffaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at RUSI, noted, "Their communications people were kids in their twenties operating in a terror group the way they do back home." "They weren't doing anything exceptional." Their social media presence made IS propagandists a prime target for international intelligence agencies, with a US airstrike killing IS spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani in northern Syria in August 2016 and another hit taking out its media centre in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Under pressure from Western governments, Facebook, Twitter also clamped down on jihadist propaganda, establishing filters on violent content that IS and other terror groups struggle to circumvent. These days IS propagandists mostly use the "dark web" -- a heavily encrypted part of the internet which is almost impossible to regulate, or the Telegram app -- to encourage supporters to launch attacks on their own initiative. A research note in November from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think-tank, said the group retained a "digital caliphate" to support its insurgency in other countries. Noting its launch of a new series of weekly videos providing statistics on purported IS activity across the world, author Maxwell B. Markusen noted, "This propaganda effort also may indicate an ongoing effort to over-emphasise its real role on the battlefield, and to recruit new fighters." Winter described the group's impact on terrorist propaganda as "enormous". "It has globalised its ideology in a way that was never really feasible before. And that will definitely stand to have an impact in how the global insurgency in terms of jihadists will look for years to come," he said.

Islamic State: Pioneers of the 'digital caliphate'

US-backed forces said Sunday thousands of people were believed to still be inside the last Islamic State group enclave in eastern Syria, as they sought to flush out die-hard fighters with airstrikes and shelling.

Tens of thousands of dishevelled women, children and men have streamed out of a small pocket in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border in recent weeks - and they still keep coming.

The huge numbers have flummoxed the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and slowed down their offensive aimed at dealing a knock-out blow to the jihadists' once-sprawling proto-state.

"Fighting continues as the #SDF advancing into Daesh encampment," SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said in a tweet late Sunday.

"Several positions captured and ammunition storage has been blown up by our forces. SDF is now holding positions inside the camp in #Baghouz."

At an SDF outpost inside Baghouz on Sunday, an AFP correspondent saw white smoke rising above the IS enclave as the sound of airstrikes and shelling rang out.

A large blaze ravaged the makeshift encampment where holdout IS fighters are making a last stand.&nbsp;

The Kurdish-led force, backed by US-led coalition warplanes, has rained fire on the jihadists for a week, blitzing thousands of fighters and family members into surrender.

But SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel told a news conference Sunday that according to the latest group that quit the pocket, "an estimated 5,000 people" are still holed up inside.

He cautioned, however, that the SDF has not been able to verify that figure.

Those fleeing the pocket have previously reported widely inconsistent figures on the number of people still inside, ranging from thousands to a few hundred.

Surrenders and evacuations

The SDF spokesman said there was no clear timeline for the end of the operation, estimating that it may take several more days at least before IS is driven from its last bastion.

"I hope it won't take more than a week but this is a personal estimate," he said in the village of Sousa in eastern Syria.

Gabriel said that nearly 30,000 IS members and their relatives have surrendered to US-backed forces since January 9, including more than 5,000 fighters.

An additional 34,000 civilians have been evacuated from the IS redoubt over the same period, he said.&nbsp;

The exodus has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Kurdish-run camps for the displaced further north, where civilians have been transported.

More than 1,300 jihadists have been killed and around 520 have been captured in special operations by the SDF since the battle for Baghouz started, Gabriel said.&nbsp;

The SDF said on Saturday that dozens of jihadists and their relatives had handed themselves over.

They include Europeans, Turks, Chinese, Iraqis and Syrians, it said in a statement.&nbsp;

Die-hard jihadists who stayed behind to defend their last bastion have launched a series of suicide bombings in recent days to hamper the SDF advance.

On Friday, IS launched three suicide attacks outside Baghouz, killing six people as they fled the village.

'There is still resistance'

Ali Khalaf Ibrahim, an SDF fighter, told AFP on Sunday that the jihadists were putting up a strong defence.

"Several times they tried to infiltrate (SDF positions) with explosive belts but they were intercepted" by SDF fighters, he said.

At the height of its brutal rule, IS-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq the size of the United Kingdom, with a population of millions.

The total capture of Baghouz by the SDF would mark the end of the cross-border "caliphate" it proclaimed more than four years ago.

But IS still retains a presence in eastern Syria's vast Badia desert and has sleeper cells in the northeast.

Baghouz is the latest front in the Syrian war that has killed 370,000 people since it started in 2011.

Elsewhere in Syria, landmines left behind by IS have killed at least 17 people in a 24-hour period at the weekend, a war monitor said on Sunday.

An ordnance left behind by jihadists exploded in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on Saturday, killing 16 people and wounding 32 others, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A separate landmine explosion in the northern province of Aleppo on Sunday killed one person, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Another two SDF fighters were killed Sunday in a mine blast at Hajin, a town near Baghouz, that was claimed by IS in a statement on Telegram.

At least 44 people have been killed in landmine explosions across Syria in the past three weeks, it added.

In Damascus, the UN envoy for Syria held talks on Sunday with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who stressed the need for a Syrian-led political solution to the eight-year war.

Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen discussed efforts to find a political settlement to the conflict, including moves to form a committee tasked with drawing up a post-war constitution, state media said.

Pedersen arrived in Damascus on Sunday in the second such visit since he took up his post in January.

US-backed forces said Sunday thousands of people were believed to still be inside the last Islamic State group enclave in eastern Syria, as they sought to flush out die-hard fighters with airstrikes and shelling.

US-backed forces said Sunday thousands of people were believed to still be inside the last Islamic State group enclave in eastern Syria, as they sought to flush out die-hard fighters with airstrikes and shelling. Tens of thousands of dishevelled women, children and men have streamed out of a small pocket in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border in recent weeks - and they still keep coming. The huge numbers have flummoxed the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and slowed down their offensive aimed at dealing a knock-out blow to the jihadists' once-sprawling proto-state. "Fighting continues as the #SDF advancing into Daesh encampment," SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said in a tweet late Sunday. "Several positions captured and ammunition storage has been blown up by our forces. SDF is now holding positions inside the camp in #Baghouz." At an SDF outpost inside Baghouz on Sunday, an AFP correspondent saw white smoke rising above the IS enclave as the sound of airstrikes and shelling rang out. A large blaze ravaged the makeshift encampment where holdout IS fighters are making a last stand. The Kurdish-led force, backed by US-led coalition warplanes, has rained fire on the jihadists for a week, blitzing thousands of fighters and family members into surrender. But SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel told a news conference Sunday that according to the latest group that quit the pocket, "an estimated 5,000 people" are still holed up inside. He cautioned, however, that the SDF has not been able to verify that figure. Those fleeing the pocket have previously reported widely inconsistent figures on the number of people still inside, ranging from thousands to a few hundred. Surrenders and evacuations The SDF spokesman said there was no clear timeline for the end of the operation, estimating that it may take several more days at least before IS is driven from its last bastion. "I hope it won't take more than a week but this is a personal estimate," he said in the village of Sousa in eastern Syria. Gabriel said that nearly 30,000 IS members and their relatives have surrendered to US-backed forces since January 9, including more than 5,000 fighters. An additional 34,000 civilians have been evacuated from the IS redoubt over the same period, he said. The exodus has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Kurdish-run camps for the displaced further north, where civilians have been transported. More than 1,300 jihadists have been killed and around 520 have been captured in special operations by the SDF since the battle for Baghouz started, Gabriel said. The SDF said on Saturday that dozens of jihadists and their relatives had handed themselves over. They include Europeans, Turks, Chinese, Iraqis and Syrians, it said in a statement. Die-hard jihadists who stayed behind to defend their last bastion have launched a series of suicide bombings in recent days to hamper the SDF advance. On Friday, IS launched three suicide attacks outside Baghouz, killing six people as they fled the village. 'There is still resistance' Ali Khalaf Ibrahim, an SDF fighter, told AFP on Sunday that the jihadists were putting up a strong defence. "Several times they tried to infiltrate (SDF positions) with explosive belts but they were intercepted" by SDF fighters, he said. At the height of its brutal rule, IS-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq the size of the United Kingdom, with a population of millions. The total capture of Baghouz by the SDF would mark the end of the cross-border "caliphate" it proclaimed more than four years ago. But IS still retains a presence in eastern Syria's vast Badia desert and has sleeper cells in the northeast. Baghouz is the latest front in the Syrian war that has killed 370,000 people since it started in 2011. Elsewhere in Syria, landmines left behind by IS have killed at least 17 people in a 24-hour period at the weekend, a war monitor said on Sunday. An ordnance left behind by jihadists exploded in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on Saturday, killing 16 people and wounding 32 others, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A separate landmine explosion in the northern province of Aleppo on Sunday killed one person, the Britain-based Observatory said. Another two SDF fighters were killed Sunday in a mine blast at Hajin, a town near Baghouz, that was claimed by IS in a statement on Telegram. At least 44 people have been killed in landmine explosions across Syria in the past three weeks, it added. In Damascus, the UN envoy for Syria held talks on Sunday with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who stressed the need for a Syrian-led political solution to the eight-year war. Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen discussed efforts to find a political settlement to the conflict, including moves to form a committee tasked with drawing up a post-war constitution, state media said. Pedersen arrived in Damascus on Sunday in the second such visit since he took up his post in January.

Syria force says 'thousands' still inside last IS pocket

The operation to destroy Islamic State's final vestige of rule in Iraq and Syria hit a temporary snag on Thursday, as an expected evacuation of the remaining civilians from its last enclave in eastern Syria did not go ahead.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has steadily driven the jihadists down the Euphrates, has surrounded them at Baghouz near the Iraqi border, but does not want to mount a final attack until all civilians are out.

Iraqi sources said the SDF handed over more then 150 Iraqi and other foreign jihadists to Iraq on Thursday, under a deal involving a total of 502.

The SDF had expected to pull the last civilians from Baghouz on Thursday, but trucks it sent in left empty. "We can't get into details, but today no civilians came out," SDF official Mustafa Bali told Reuters.

Baghouz is all that remains for Islamic State in the Euphrates valley region that became its final populated stronghold in Iraq and Syria after it lost its major cities of Mosul and Raqqa in 2017.

The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State was verifying whether an air strike in Baghouz on Wednesday killed French jihadist Fabien Clain, who voiced the recording claiming the November 2015 attacks on Paris, U.S. and French sources said.

In the 2015 attacks, gunmen and suicide bombers killed 129 people in the French capital. "During coalition operations to regain the Islamic State's last bastion, it is possible indeed that Fabien Clain was killed," French Defence Minister Florence Parly said on her Twitter account.

France's military and foreign ministry declined comment.

The capture of Baghouz will nudge the eight-year-old Syrian war towards a new phase, with US&nbsp;President Donald Trump's pledge to withdraw troops leaving a security vacuum that other powers are seeking to fill.

Though the fall of Baghouz marks a milestone in the campaign against IS and the wider conflict in Syria, Islamic State is still seen as a major security threat.

The group has steadily turned to guerrilla warfare and still holds territory in a remote, sparsely populated area west of the Euphrates River - a part of Syria otherwise controlled by the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies.

Bali told Reuters the SDF would attack Baghouz once the civilian evacuation was complete. He did not say how much more time was needed to finish off the remaining Islamic State militants, or give a new estimate of how many fighters remained.

The SDF has previously estimated several hundred fighters - believed mostly to be foreign jihadists - are still inside.

A Reuters witness saw warplanes in the sky over Baghouz on Thursday though there was no sound of fighting or shelling.

The US-led coalition said on Wednesday "the most hardened" jihadists remain in Baghouz.

More than 2,000 civilians left the enclave on Wednesday, the SDF said. It has said more than 20,000 civilians left Baghouz in the days leading up to the start of the SDF's final push to capture the enclave this month.

The SDF has not ruled out the possibility that some Islamic State fighters had left Baghouz with the civilians.

SDF and coalition forces are recording the names and questioning everyone who has left in the civilian convoys.

Many of the people who left the enclave in civilian convoys have been Iraqis, some of whom said they had crossed from Iraq into Syria as Iraqi government forces made gains against Islamic State on the other side of the frontier.

Facing the consequences

Two Iraqi military sources told Reuters the handover of Islamic State fighters on Thursday was the first of several.

"The majority of the fighters are Iraqi," said a military colonel whose unit is stationed at the Syrian border. "But we have a few foreigners."

Islamic State, whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared himself "caliph", or leader of all Muslims, in 2014, attracted members from all over the world, including many Western states.

A Turkish official said Turkey was doubling down its own security measures to make it harder for foreign fighters still in Syria or Iraq to pass through Turkey, noting that the threat was much greater than the 800 that the SDF says it is holding.

Western countries refusing to repatriate jihadists were not living up to their responsibilities and leaving countries like Turkey to face the consequences, the official added.

Britain has stripped the citizenship of a teenager who went to Syria aged 15 to join Islamic State. But interior minister Sajid Javid said he would not take a decision that would leave anyone stateless, after Bangladesh said it would not accept her.

US&nbsp;Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a woman born in the United States who joined Islamic State did not qualify for US&nbsp;citizenship and had no legal basis to return to the country.

The operation to destroy Islamic State's final vestige of rule in Iraq and Syria hit a temporary snag on Thursday, as an expected evacuation of the remaining civilians from its last enclave in eastern Syria did not go ahead.

The operation to destroy Islamic State's final vestige of rule in Iraq and Syria hit a temporary snag on Thursday, as an expected evacuation of the remaining civilians from its last enclave in eastern Syria did not go ahead. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has steadily driven the jihadists down the Euphrates, has surrounded them at Baghouz near the Iraqi border, but does not want to mount a final attack until all civilians are out. Iraqi sources said the SDF handed over more then 150 Iraqi and other foreign jihadists to Iraq on Thursday, under a deal involving a total of 502. The SDF had expected to pull the last civilians from Baghouz on Thursday, but trucks it sent in left empty. "We can't get into details, but today no civilians came out," SDF official Mustafa Bali told Reuters. Baghouz is all that remains for Islamic State in the Euphrates valley region that became its final populated stronghold in Iraq and Syria after it lost its major cities of Mosul and Raqqa in 2017. The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State was verifying whether an air strike in Baghouz on Wednesday killed French jihadist Fabien Clain, who voiced the recording claiming the November 2015 attacks on Paris, U.S. and French sources said. In the 2015 attacks, gunmen and suicide bombers killed 129 people in the French capital. "During coalition operations to regain the Islamic State's last bastion, it is possible indeed that Fabien Clain was killed," French Defence Minister Florence Parly said on her Twitter account. France's military and foreign ministry declined comment. The capture of Baghouz will nudge the eight-year-old Syrian war towards a new phase, with US President Donald Trump's pledge to withdraw troops leaving a security vacuum that other powers are seeking to fill. Though the fall of Baghouz marks a milestone in the campaign against IS and the wider conflict in Syria, Islamic State is still seen as a major security threat. The group has steadily turned to guerrilla warfare and still holds territory in a remote, sparsely populated area west of the Euphrates River - a part of Syria otherwise controlled by the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies. Bali told Reuters the SDF would attack Baghouz once the civilian evacuation was complete. He did not say how much more time was needed to finish off the remaining Islamic State militants, or give a new estimate of how many fighters remained. The SDF has previously estimated several hundred fighters - believed mostly to be foreign jihadists - are still inside. A Reuters witness saw warplanes in the sky over Baghouz on Thursday though there was no sound of fighting or shelling. The US-led coalition said on Wednesday "the most hardened" jihadists remain in Baghouz. More than 2,000 civilians left the enclave on Wednesday, the SDF said. It has said more than 20,000 civilians left Baghouz in the days leading up to the start of the SDF's final push to capture the enclave this month. The SDF has not ruled out the possibility that some Islamic State fighters had left Baghouz with the civilians. SDF and coalition forces are recording the names and questioning everyone who has left in the civilian convoys. Many of the people who left the enclave in civilian convoys have been Iraqis, some of whom said they had crossed from Iraq into Syria as Iraqi government forces made gains against Islamic State on the other side of the frontier. Facing the consequences Two Iraqi military sources told Reuters the handover of Islamic State fighters on Thursday was the first of several. "The majority of the fighters are Iraqi," said a military colonel whose unit is stationed at the Syrian border. "But we have a few foreigners." Islamic State, whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared himself "caliph", or leader of all Muslims, in 2014, attracted members from all over the world, including many Western states. A Turkish official said Turkey was doubling down its own security measures to make it harder for foreign fighters still in Syria or Iraq to pass through Turkey, noting that the threat was much greater than the 800 that the SDF says it is holding. Western countries refusing to repatriate jihadists were not living up to their responsibilities and leaving countries like Turkey to face the consequences, the official added. Britain has stripped the citizenship of a teenager who went to Syria aged 15 to join Islamic State. But interior minister Sajid Javid said he would not take a decision that would leave anyone stateless, after Bangladesh said it would not accept her. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a woman born in the United States who joined Islamic State did not qualify for US citizenship and had no legal basis to return to the country.

Operation to end last IS Syria pocket hits evacuation snag

A <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/british-government-to-strip-teen-who-joined-islamic-state-of-citizenship-lawyer-198405">British teen</a> who joined the Islamic State group has no claim to Bangladeshi nationality, Dhaka's foreign ministry said Wednesday, after the UK government decided to revoke her citizenship.

Shamima Begum, who travelled to Syria in 2015 and now wants to return to <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/islamic-state-teen-shocked-after-uk-revokes-her-citizenship-198523">Britain</a> after giving birth in a refugee camp in Syria last week, was stripped of her UK citizenship on Tuesday.

The Home Office reportedly believed that Begum was entitled to claim citizenship in Bangladesh -- a claim disputed by the South Asian country.

"Bangladesh asserts that Ms Shamima Begum is not a Bangladeshi citizen. She is a British citizen by birth and has never applied for dual nationality with Bangladesh," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"It may also be mentioned that she never visited Bangladesh in the past despite her parental lineage. So, there is no question of her being allowed to enter into Bangladesh," it added.

Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer for Begum's family, earlier said the teen was born in Britain and had never had a Bangladeshi passport.&nbsp;

A British teen who joined the Islamic State group has no claim to Bangladeshi nationality, Dhaka's foreign ministry said Wednesday, after the UK government decided to revoke her citizenship.

A British teen who joined the Islamic State group has no claim to Bangladeshi nationality, Dhaka's foreign ministry said Wednesday, after the UK government decided to revoke her citizenship. Shamima Begum, who travelled to Syria in 2015 and now wants to return to Britain after giving birth in a refugee camp in Syria last week, was stripped of her UK citizenship on Tuesday. The Home Office reportedly believed that Begum was entitled to claim citizenship in Bangladesh -- a claim disputed by the South Asian country. "Bangladesh asserts that Ms Shamima Begum is not a Bangladeshi citizen. She is a British citizen by birth and has never applied for dual nationality with Bangladesh," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "It may also be mentioned that she never visited Bangladesh in the past despite her parental lineage. So, there is no question of her being allowed to enter into Bangladesh," it added. Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer for Begum's family, earlier said the teen was born in Britain and had never had a Bangladeshi passport.

Bangladesh says IS teen Shamima Begum not eligible for citizenship

By Elizabeth Pearson

Just days after Shamima Begum called for public sympathy for her return to the UK, another young woman was jailed in Baghdad for her role with the so-called Islamic State. Linda Wenzel is German and, like Begum, was 15 years old when she joined Islamic State in 2016. Wenzel has also asked to return to Europe to serve her sentence. There are no signs this will be allowed.

In 2016 I was in Germany, trying to understand young women like Wenzel, for a five-country study on the gender dynamics of violent extremism with my colleague Emily Winterbotham, a senior research fellow at the RUSI think tank. We talked to communities and families affected by radicalisation in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Canada.

These countries had diverse approaches to radicalisation. France produced counter-radicalisation strategies after the Paris attacks of 2015, while the UK and Netherlands have worked on policy to counter violent extremism since the mid-2000s. Both the Netherlands and UK permit deprivation of citizenship without criminal conviction – which is what has now happened to Begum.

We heard stories of people prevented from travel by police, as well as of both women and men who left for Syria and Iraq. Across the five countries, we noted differences in how men and women were recruited, such as more cases of online approaches to women. We also saw how Muslim community anger was often reserved for the young men who fled to join the Islamic State. Focus groups within Muslim communities often told us women were “naïve”, lacking in self-esteem, “tricked” by “lover-boys” they met online. They were seen as victims.

Back in 2015-16 this sentiment was mirrored in government policy. France, Germany and the Netherlands tended to treat women jihadists as “victims” of Islamic State. Recent research on returning foreign fighters in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands noted that back then women were “treated with more clemency” and routinely not prosecuted.

That position has changed, with toughening measures for both men and women across Europe. Countries including the UK, Netherlands, Germany and France now investigate and risk-assess both men and women returners. From a position where women and their agency in joining Islamic State were not recognised, the pendulum swung firmly in the other direction.

Hardening attitudes

The first reason why this shift happened was numbers. Countries have had to evolve to catch up with events on the ground. From the Islamic State’s announcement of a “caliphate” in 2014, Europe saw a significant minority of women travel – and women made up around 16-17 per cent of the approximately 6,000 people who left Europe to join the caliphate.

In the case of France, which was new to counter-radicalisation strategies at home and where women made up around 28 per cent of its returners, the shift in policy meant sharp changes to the law and procedures. Canada, which had fewer fighters, adopted a liberal response with few prosecutions of returners – both fighters and others.&nbsp;

This prompted accusations from Canada’s opposition Conservative Party of a policy of “group hug sessions”.

A second reason for the hardening of attitudes to women who joined IS was increased knowledge of women’s role in Islamic State. Women were active propagandists, recruiters, ideologues, supporters of current warriors and producers of the next generation. They were involved in the abuse of other women, whether enslaved Yazidis, or in the al-Khansaa brigade, which policed women. Both Begum and Wenzel suggested they were only housewives. But for Islamic State, the wife is the key to the endurance – or baqiya – of both ideology and “caliphate”.

The perception of women’s threat was also explicitly influenced by cases involving women and a seemingly new phenomenon: the all-female jihadist cell. In 2016, three women were arrested in France after a failed attack near Notre Dame. This proved a game-changer for both public opinion and policy regarding returners, despite the fact that these women were radicalised in France. In the UK, another all-female plot was uncovered in 2017.

An increase in threat levels linked to male returners also had an influence on how women were viewed. In 2015, male returners were involved in the Paris attacks and the following year in attacks in Brussels. While women have not yet returned in large numbers, the fear is that women, newly recognised as ideologically committed, might also carry out an attack. 
 
The gender dimension

Both policy and public opinion are shifting from ignoring women in jihadist movements, to “adding” them into counter-extremism strategies, and increasingly treating the threat they pose as equal to men. There is now an increased assumption in France, the Netherlands and Germany of parity in male and female potential for violence. However, it’s not enough to just to “add women” into existing strategies – governments must recognise the ways in which terrorist groups understand men and women differently.

This means acknowledging two important facts related to power. First, compared to men, instances of women perpetrators of jihadist violence are rare, not because women are “naturally” less violent, or do not support jihad, but because patriarchal jihadi ideology judges female violence is highly transgressive.&nbsp;

The second relates to the power imbalances in women’s radicalisation. Islamic State ran a systemised online recruitment campaign targeting women, with parallels to child sexual exploitation and grooming. Often older men sought out teenage girls. Women desperate to return emphasise their own victimhood. Some women radicalised to join Islamic State report experiences of sexual abuse, domestic or honour-based violence.

This doesn’t deny women agency or excuse them from complicity in Islamic State atrocities but recognises the context within which their choices were made. It is more important now, in the current chaos of the end of the caliphate when many women may return to their countries of origin, including within Europe and North America, to recognise the complexity of what it meant to be involved in Islamic State.

 
(Elizabeth Pearson is Lecturer at the Cyber Threats Research Centre, Swansea University)

(This article was originally published on the Conversation. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/shamima-begum-how-europe-toughened-its-stance-on-women-returning-from-islamic-state-112048">original article</a>)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

 
&nbsp;

By Elizabeth Pearson Just days after Shamima Begum called for public sympathy for her return to the UK, another young woman was jailed in Baghdad for her role with the so-called Islamic State.

By Elizabeth Pearson Just days after Shamima Begum called for public sympathy for her return to the UK, another young woman was jailed in Baghdad for her role with the so-called Islamic State. Linda Wenzel is German and, like Begum, was 15 years old when she joined Islamic State in 2016. Wenzel has also asked to return to Europe to serve her sentence. There are no signs this will be allowed. In 2016 I was in Germany, trying to understand young women like Wenzel, for a five-country study on the gender dynamics of violent extremism with my colleague Emily Winterbotham, a senior research fellow at the RUSI think tank. We talked to communities and families affected by radicalisation in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Canada. These countries had diverse approaches to radicalisation. France produced counter-radicalisation strategies after the Paris attacks of 2015, while the UK and Netherlands have worked on policy to counter violent extremism since the mid-2000s. Both the Netherlands and UK permit deprivation of citizenship without criminal conviction – which is what has now happened to Begum. We heard stories of people prevented from travel by police, as well as of both women and men who left for Syria and Iraq. Across the five countries, we noted differences in how men and women were recruited, such as more cases of online approaches to women. We also saw how Muslim community anger was often reserved for the young men who fled to join the Islamic State. Focus groups within Muslim communities often told us women were “naïve”, lacking in self-esteem, “tricked” by “lover-boys” they met online. They were seen as victims. Back in 2015-16 this sentiment was mirrored in government policy. France, Germany and the Netherlands tended to treat women jihadists as “victims” of Islamic State. Recent research on returning foreign fighters in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands noted that back then women were “treated with more clemency” and routinely not prosecuted. That position has changed, with toughening measures for both men and women across Europe. Countries including the UK, Netherlands, Germany and France now investigate and risk-assess both men and women returners. From a position where women and their agency in joining Islamic State were not recognised, the pendulum swung firmly in the other direction. Hardening attitudes The first reason why this shift happened was numbers. Countries have had to evolve to catch up with events on the ground. From the Islamic State’s announcement of a “caliphate” in 2014, Europe saw a significant minority of women travel – and women made up around 16-17 per cent of the approximately 6,000 people who left Europe to join the caliphate. In the case of France, which was new to counter-radicalisation strategies at home and where women made up around 28 per cent of its returners, the shift in policy meant sharp changes to the law and procedures. Canada, which had fewer fighters, adopted a liberal response with few prosecutions of returners – both fighters and others. This prompted accusations from Canada’s opposition Conservative Party of a policy of “group hug sessions”. A second reason for the hardening of attitudes to women who joined IS was increased knowledge of women’s role in Islamic State. Women were active propagandists, recruiters, ideologues, supporters of current warriors and producers of the next generation. They were involved in the abuse of other women, whether enslaved Yazidis, or in the al-Khansaa brigade, which policed women. Both Begum and Wenzel suggested they were only housewives. But for Islamic State, the wife is the key to the endurance – or baqiya – of both ideology and “caliphate”. The perception of women’s threat was also explicitly influenced by cases involving women and a seemingly new phenomenon: the all-female jihadist cell. In 2016, three women were arrested in France after a failed attack near Notre Dame. This proved a game-changer for both public opinion and policy regarding returners, despite the fact that these women were radicalised in France. In the UK, another all-female plot was uncovered in 2017. An increase in threat levels linked to male returners also had an influence on how women were viewed. In 2015, male returners were involved in the Paris attacks and the following year in attacks in Brussels. While women have not yet returned in large numbers, the fear is that women, newly recognised as ideologically committed, might also carry out an attack. The gender dimension Both policy and public opinion are shifting from ignoring women in jihadist movements, to “adding” them into counter-extremism strategies, and increasingly treating the threat they pose as equal to men. There is now an increased assumption in France, the Netherlands and Germany of parity in male and female potential for violence. However, it’s not enough to just to “add women” into existing strategies – governments must recognise the ways in which terrorist groups understand men and women differently. This means acknowledging two important facts related to power. First, compared to men, instances of women perpetrators of jihadist violence are rare, not because women are “naturally” less violent, or do not support jihad, but because patriarchal jihadi ideology judges female violence is highly transgressive. The second relates to the power imbalances in women’s radicalisation. Islamic State ran a systemised online recruitment campaign targeting women, with parallels to child sexual exploitation and grooming. Often older men sought out teenage girls. Women desperate to return emphasise their own victimhood. Some women radicalised to join Islamic State report experiences of sexual abuse, domestic or honour-based violence. This doesn’t deny women agency or excuse them from complicity in Islamic State atrocities but recognises the context within which their choices were made. It is more important now, in the current chaos of the end of the caliphate when many women may return to their countries of origin, including within Europe and North America, to recognise the complexity of what it meant to be involved in Islamic State. (Elizabeth Pearson is Lecturer at the Cyber Threats Research Centre, Swansea University) (This article was originally published on the Conversation. Read the original article) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

Shamima Begum: How Europe toughened its stance on women returning from Islamic State

The fate of foreigners who joined Islamic State has become an increasingly urgent issue as US-backed fighters prepare to capture the militant group's last stronghold in eastern Syria.

The Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces say they are holding 800 foreign fighters, with 700 of their wives and 1,500 of their children living separately in camps. Dozens of more militants and family members have been arriving daily.

US&nbsp;President Donald Trump said on Sunday European countries must do more to take back their citizens or they will be released. The SDF says it has no intention of freeing them, but they could escape in future if the area is attacked.

European countries say they are working on how to deal with their citizens who want to come home, including investigating and prosecuting those guilty of crimes.

But they say this is made more complicated because diplomats cannot operate in territory held by the SDF, which is not internationally recognised, and they worry that the Trump administration's decision to withdraw its 2,000-strong force from Syria means there will not be enough time to respond.

According to European police agency Europol, some 5,000 Europeans -- most from Britain, France, Germany and Belgium -- went to fight in Syria and Iraq, of whom some 1,500 have returned.

Following is a breakdown by country of Europeans believed to have travelled to Syria or Iraq.

Britain

British officials estimate around 900 people from the United Kingdom went to the Syria region. Around a fifth have died and about half have returned, so around 360 remain in the region. Officials noted that not all of those who went to the Syria region were extremists: some went with genuine charitable intentions. Of those who went to fight, not all joined Islamic State, though most of those left in the region are thought to represent militant elements.

The issue has gained greater attention in recent days as news organisations have run interviews with Shamima Begum, a pregnant 19-year-old who left London to become an Islamic State bride as a schoolgirl.

Belgium

The Belgian threat assessment centre OCAD/OCAM says 442 Belgians left for Syria or Iraq, of whom 130 have returned and 142 have been killed. Six Belgian men, 17 women and 32 children are being held in Syria, and two men are jailed in Iraq.

Denmark

The latest data available from Denmark's security and intelligence service dates to January 2018. The authorities believe at least 150 people have left Denmark for Syria or Iraq since the summer of 2012 to join militant Islamist groups. More than a third have returned to Denmark and at least a quarter are presumed dead. Roughly one fifth are still in the conflict zone, with the rest located in third countries.

France

French officials and the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence estimate that 800-1,500 people have travelled from France to join Islamic State. French officials estimate that around 300 have been killed and a similar number have returned to France.

Of those that remain in Syria and Iraq, diplomats and military officials said two weeks ago that Kurdish-led forces were holding about 150 French citizens in northeastern Syria. An estimated 100 French citizens are believed to be left in the last pocket of Islamic State fighters, although it is not clear if that includes families and children. A further 150 French fighters and children are in Idlib, French officials have said.

Germany

According to the German authorities, around 1050 people from Germany have travelled to Syria and Iraq since 2013, around one-third of whom have returned. Around 270 women and children from Germany are now in Syria and Iraq. Around 75 per cent of the children are under the age of three years old and believed to have been born in the conflict zone. The Interior Ministry estimates the number of Germans in the custody of the Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria as in the high double digits.

Netherlands

The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD says about 315 people left the Netherlands for Syria or Iraq with the intention of joining the militants, about two-thirds of the men and one-third women. About 55 are believed to have returned, 85 are believed to have died, 135 are still in the conflict area and 40 are either in third countries or in detention in the region.

Sources told Reuters last year that as many as 175 children with the right to Dutch citizenship were believed to be in the conflict zone.

Switzerland

In its 2018 annual report, Switzerland's intelligence service identified 93 cases of jihadi travellers who had left the country for war zones, including 79 who went to Syria or Iraq. Dozens of them had died and 16 had returned to Switzerland, it said. 
&nbsp;

The fate of foreigners who joined Islamic State has become an increasingly urgent issue as US-backed fighters prepare to capture the militant group's last stronghold in eastern Syria.

The fate of foreigners who joined Islamic State has become an increasingly urgent issue as US-backed fighters prepare to capture the militant group's last stronghold in eastern Syria. The Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces say they are holding 800 foreign fighters, with 700 of their wives and 1,500 of their children living separately in camps. Dozens of more militants and family members have been arriving daily. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday European countries must do more to take back their citizens or they will be released. The SDF says it has no intention of freeing them, but they could escape in future if the area is attacked. European countries say they are working on how to deal with their citizens who want to come home, including investigating and prosecuting those guilty of crimes. But they say this is made more complicated because diplomats cannot operate in territory held by the SDF, which is not internationally recognised, and they worry that the Trump administration's decision to withdraw its 2,000-strong force from Syria means there will not be enough time to respond. According to European police agency Europol, some 5,000 Europeans -- most from Britain, France, Germany and Belgium -- went to fight in Syria and Iraq, of whom some 1,500 have returned. Following is a breakdown by country of Europeans believed to have travelled to Syria or Iraq. Britain British officials estimate around 900 people from the United Kingdom went to the Syria region. Around a fifth have died and about half have returned, so around 360 remain in the region. Officials noted that not all of those who went to the Syria region were extremists: some went with genuine charitable intentions. Of those who went to fight, not all joined Islamic State, though most of those left in the region are thought to represent militant elements. The issue has gained greater attention in recent days as news organisations have run interviews with Shamima Begum, a pregnant 19-year-old who left London to become an Islamic State bride as a schoolgirl. Belgium The Belgian threat assessment centre OCAD/OCAM says 442 Belgians left for Syria or Iraq, of whom 130 have returned and 142 have been killed. Six Belgian men, 17 women and 32 children are being held in Syria, and two men are jailed in Iraq. Denmark The latest data available from Denmark's security and intelligence service dates to January 2018. The authorities believe at least 150 people have left Denmark for Syria or Iraq since the summer of 2012 to join militant Islamist groups. More than a third have returned to Denmark and at least a quarter are presumed dead. Roughly one fifth are still in the conflict zone, with the rest located in third countries. France French officials and the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence estimate that 800-1,500 people have travelled from France to join Islamic State. French officials estimate that around 300 have been killed and a similar number have returned to France. Of those that remain in Syria and Iraq, diplomats and military officials said two weeks ago that Kurdish-led forces were holding about 150 French citizens in northeastern Syria. An estimated 100 French citizens are believed to be left in the last pocket of Islamic State fighters, although it is not clear if that includes families and children. A further 150 French fighters and children are in Idlib, French officials have said. Germany According to the German authorities, around 1050 people from Germany have travelled to Syria and Iraq since 2013, around one-third of whom have returned. Around 270 women and children from Germany are now in Syria and Iraq. Around 75 per cent of the children are under the age of three years old and believed to have been born in the conflict zone. The Interior Ministry estimates the number of Germans in the custody of the Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria as in the high double digits. Netherlands The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD says about 315 people left the Netherlands for Syria or Iraq with the intention of joining the militants, about two-thirds of the men and one-third women. About 55 are believed to have returned, 85 are believed to have died, 135 are still in the conflict area and 40 are either in third countries or in detention in the region. Sources told Reuters last year that as many as 175 children with the right to Dutch citizenship were believed to be in the conflict zone. Switzerland In its 2018 annual report, Switzerland's intelligence service identified 93 cases of jihadi travellers who had left the country for war zones, including 79 who went to Syria or Iraq. Dozens of them had died and 16 had returned to Switzerland, it said.

Factbox: Europeans who joined Islamic State

Trucks entered the last Islamic State enclave in eastern Syria on Tuesday to evacuate remaining civilians, said a source in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is poised to capture the area.

The SDF has said isolating the civilians in the enclave at Baghouz from the remaining jihadists holed up inside is a crucial step towards the final capture of the last territory held by the jihadist group in eastern Syria.

Dozens of trucks could be seen moving along a road towards the village.

The United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said earlier on Tuesday that some 200 families remained trapped in the Islamic State enclave and called for their safe passage out.

Backed by a US-led international coalition, the SDF has recaptured swathes of northeastern Syria from Islamic State since 2015, finally cornering the group around Baghouz at the Iraqi border.

Islamic State lost most of its territory in 2017 in both Iraq and Syria to separate military campaigns by the SDF and the Iraqi and Syrian governments.

However, while the group has lost almost all of the caliphate it proclaimed in 2014, it has carried out guerrilla attacks in areas it controls and numerous Western and Middle East officials have said it still poses a threat.

Trucks entered the last Islamic State enclave in eastern Syria on Tuesday to evacuate remaining civilians, said a source in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is poised to capture the area.

Trucks entered the last Islamic State enclave in eastern Syria on Tuesday to evacuate remaining civilians, said a source in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is poised to capture the area. The SDF has said isolating the civilians in the enclave at Baghouz from the remaining jihadists holed up inside is a crucial step towards the final capture of the last territory held by the jihadist group in eastern Syria. Dozens of trucks could be seen moving along a road towards the village. The United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said earlier on Tuesday that some 200 families remained trapped in the Islamic State enclave and called for their safe passage out. Backed by a US-led international coalition, the SDF has recaptured swathes of northeastern Syria from Islamic State since 2015, finally cornering the group around Baghouz at the Iraqi border. Islamic State lost most of its territory in 2017 in both Iraq and Syria to separate military campaigns by the SDF and the Iraqi and Syrian governments. However, while the group has lost almost all of the caliphate it proclaimed in 2014, it has carried out guerrilla attacks in areas it controls and numerous Western and Middle East officials have said it still poses a threat.

Trucks prepare to evacuate last civilians from Syrian IS enclave: SDF source

The commander of US-backed forces in Syria called on Monday for about 1,000 to 1,500 international forces to remain in Syria to help fight Islamic State and expressed hope that the United States, in particular, would halt plans for a total pullout.

The remarks by Mazloum Kobani, the commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, followed talks with senior US&nbsp;generals at an airbase in northeast Syria and offered perhaps the most comprehensive view to date of his requests for enduring military assistance from the US-led coalition.

"We would like to have air cover, air support and a force on the ground to coordinate with us," Kobani told a small group of reporters who travelled with the US&nbsp;military to an airbase at an undisclosed location in northeast Syria.

With US&nbsp;help, the Kurdish-led fighters are poised to seize Islamic State's last holdout in eastern Syria. At the height of its power four years ago, Islamic State held about a third of both Iraq and Syria in a self-proclaimed Caliphate.

But Islamic State still has thousands of fighters, who, now dispersed, are expected to turn to guerrilla-style attacks.

Kobani said there were discussions about perhaps French and British troops supporting the SDF in Syria. But he stressed he also wanted at least "a partial group of American forces," who now number more than 2,000 in Syria, to stay as well.

US&nbsp;Army General Joseph Votel, head of Central Command, said after the talks with Kobani that he was still carrying out President Donald Trump's December order for a complete US. withdrawal of American forces.

"We certainly understand what they would like us to do, but of course that's not the path we're on at this particular point," Votel told reporters.

US presence

Asked about any discussions on a continuing US&nbsp;presence in Syria, Votel said: "So the discussion really isn't about US&nbsp;forces staying here. We've looked at potentially what coalition (forces) might be able to do here."

Trump's surprise December decision to withdraw all the US&nbsp;troops from Syria has triggered deep concern among US&nbsp;allies about the risk of an eventual resurgence of Islamic State.

But the pullout raises an even more immediate threat to Kobani's SDF, which fears that Turkey will make good on threats to attack them. He warned of a "new genocide" in SDF controlled areas of Syria.

Kobani thanked Trump for publicly stating his intent to protect the SDF but said: "I want him to live up to his word."

Without a deal with the US-led coalition, experts say Kobani may have to strike a deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to avoid a Turkish sweep or a resurgence of Islamic State.

Votel is recommending continued support to the SDF as long as it keeps up pressure on Islamic State militants.

But Army Lieutenant General Paul LaCamera, who is the commander of the US-led coalition battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, cautioned on Sunday that the United States would be legally unable to support the SDF if they partnered with Assad or Assad's Russian backers.

Kobani stressed he was not seeking a military deal with Damascus.

Perhaps sensing an opportunity to stoke doubt among the Kurdish communities, Assad warned on Sunday the United States would not protect those depending on it.

"We say to those groups who are betting on the Americans, the Americans will not protect you," he said. "The Americans will put you in their pockets so you can be tools in the barter, and they have started with (it)."

Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, is among the US&nbsp;lawmakers expressing concern the US&nbsp;withdrawal could deal a devastating blow to Kurdish forces and warned that any sense of US&nbsp;betrayal could cast a long shadow for years to come.

"It will chill future potential groups from assisting us if we're going to treat the people who have been so stalwart on our behalf in this way. It is very dangerous in terms of national security," he has said.

The commander of US-backed forces in Syria called on Monday for about 1,000 to 1,500 international forces to remain in Syria to help fight Islamic State and expressed hope that the United States, in particular, would halt plans for a total pullout.

The commander of US-backed forces in Syria called on Monday for about 1,000 to 1,500 international forces to remain in Syria to help fight Islamic State and expressed hope that the United States, in particular, would halt plans for a total pullout. The remarks by Mazloum Kobani, the commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, followed talks with senior US generals at an airbase in northeast Syria and offered perhaps the most comprehensive view to date of his requests for enduring military assistance from the US-led coalition. "We would like to have air cover, air support and a force on the ground to coordinate with us," Kobani told a small group of reporters who travelled with the US military to an airbase at an undisclosed location in northeast Syria. With US help, the Kurdish-led fighters are poised to seize Islamic State's last holdout in eastern Syria. At the height of its power four years ago, Islamic State held about a third of both Iraq and Syria in a self-proclaimed Caliphate. But Islamic State still has thousands of fighters, who, now dispersed, are expected to turn to guerrilla-style attacks. Kobani said there were discussions about perhaps French and British troops supporting the SDF in Syria. But he stressed he also wanted at least "a partial group of American forces," who now number more than 2,000 in Syria, to stay as well. US Army General Joseph Votel, head of Central Command, said after the talks with Kobani that he was still carrying out President Donald Trump's December order for a complete US. withdrawal of American forces. "We certainly understand what they would like us to do, but of course that's not the path we're on at this particular point," Votel told reporters. US presence Asked about any discussions on a continuing US presence in Syria, Votel said: "So the discussion really isn't about US forces staying here. We've looked at potentially what coalition (forces) might be able to do here." Trump's surprise December decision to withdraw all the US troops from Syria has triggered deep concern among US allies about the risk of an eventual resurgence of Islamic State. But the pullout raises an even more immediate threat to Kobani's SDF, which fears that Turkey will make good on threats to attack them. He warned of a "new genocide" in SDF controlled areas of Syria. Kobani thanked Trump for publicly stating his intent to protect the SDF but said: "I want him to live up to his word." Without a deal with the US-led coalition, experts say Kobani may have to strike a deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to avoid a Turkish sweep or a resurgence of Islamic State. Votel is recommending continued support to the SDF as long as it keeps up pressure on Islamic State militants. But Army Lieutenant General Paul LaCamera, who is the commander of the US-led coalition battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, cautioned on Sunday that the United States would be legally unable to support the SDF if they partnered with Assad or Assad's Russian backers. Kobani stressed he was not seeking a military deal with Damascus. Perhaps sensing an opportunity to stoke doubt among the Kurdish communities, Assad warned on Sunday the United States would not protect those depending on it. "We say to those groups who are betting on the Americans, the Americans will not protect you," he said. "The Americans will put you in their pockets so you can be tools in the barter, and they have started with (it)." Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, is among the US lawmakers expressing concern the US withdrawal could deal a devastating blow to Kurdish forces and warned that any sense of US betrayal could cast a long shadow for years to come. "It will chill future potential groups from assisting us if we're going to treat the people who have been so stalwart on our behalf in this way. It is very dangerous in terms of national security," he has said.

US-backed Syrian forces call for 1,500 coalition troops to stay

A United States-backed Syrian militia on Monday said it would declare the defeat of the Islamic State terror organization in the war-torn country in a short time.

On February 9, the Syrian Democratic Forces, an ethnically-mixed militia led by Kurds, launched an offensive against besieged IS militants in the village of Baghuz, the only area still under the radical group's control in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, near the Iraqi border.

"In a few days, we will be able to announce the total and definitive victory over IS," SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel told EFE.

Gabriel added the release of civilian prisoners held by extremists in Baghuz was being negotiated.

The US-allied fighters have been carrying out offensives against IS-held areas in Syria and have conquered most of the radicals' bastions in Deir al-Zour during the past weeks.

In December, US President Donald Trump surprised allies when he announced the pullout of 2,000 US troops from Syria but has not set a specific date for it yet, a move that led to the resignation of US Defense Secretary James Mattis.

"We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," Trump tweeted.

His decision drew criticism from the Kurdish militia, as there are fears Turkey could launch an offensive against the SDF, led by the People's Protection Units (YPG).

Turkey considers the YPG as a part of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Following Trump's announcement, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarked last months on an extensive tour of the Middle East in a bid to reassure US allies of Washington's commitment to the region.

He began his trip with a visit to Jordan, followed by Iraq, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Over the weekend, Trump demanded Europe take in IS militants captured in Syria and threatened the US would be forced to release them otherwise.

"The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS (another acronym for the Islamic State) fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them," he tweeted.

"The US does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go. We do so much, and spend so much – Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing. We are pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory!" Trump added. 
&nbsp;

A United States-backed Syrian militia on Monday said it would declare the defeat of the Islamic State terror organization in the war-torn country in a short time.

A United States-backed Syrian militia on Monday said it would declare the defeat of the Islamic State terror organization in the war-torn country in a short time. On February 9, the Syrian Democratic Forces, an ethnically-mixed militia led by Kurds, launched an offensive against besieged IS militants in the village of Baghuz, the only area still under the radical group's control in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, near the Iraqi border. "In a few days, we will be able to announce the total and definitive victory over IS," SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel told EFE. Gabriel added the release of civilian prisoners held by extremists in Baghuz was being negotiated. The US-allied fighters have been carrying out offensives against IS-held areas in Syria and have conquered most of the radicals' bastions in Deir al-Zour during the past weeks. In December, US President Donald Trump surprised allies when he announced the pullout of 2,000 US troops from Syria but has not set a specific date for it yet, a move that led to the resignation of US Defense Secretary James Mattis. "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," Trump tweeted. His decision drew criticism from the Kurdish militia, as there are fears Turkey could launch an offensive against the SDF, led by the People's Protection Units (YPG). Turkey considers the YPG as a part of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Following Trump's announcement, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarked last months on an extensive tour of the Middle East in a bid to reassure US allies of Washington's commitment to the region. He began his trip with a visit to Jordan, followed by Iraq, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Over the weekend, Trump demanded Europe take in IS militants captured in Syria and threatened the US would be forced to release them otherwise. "The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS (another acronym for the Islamic State) fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them," he tweeted. "The US does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go. We do so much, and spend so much – Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing. We are pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory!" Trump added.

US-backed forces in Syria say they will soon declare defeat of Islamic State

A British teenager, Shamima Begum, who left the United Kingdom to join terror outfit Islamic State in 2015 is now hoping to return home. Begum makes it clear that she does not regret her decision of joining the terror group.

Begum was only 15 when she went to Syria to marry an IS terrorist. Now, at 19, <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/uk-teen-who-joined-is-has-given-birth-in-syria-family-197927">Shamima has given birth to a boy</a> in a camp for the displaced in northern Syria. She says that her newborn son is the reason she wants to return home.

"We, the family of Shamima Begum, have been informed that Shamima has given birth to her child," a statement released by Begum's family lawyer Mohammed Akunjee read.&nbsp;

"As yet we have not had direct contact with Shamima, we are hoping to establish communications with her soon so that we can verify the above."&nbsp;

Begum says she wants to return home to give a better life to her son, however, she maintains having no regrets over the choices she made in life. &nbsp;

Begum gave birth to a girl and a boy during her time with the IS, both of them fell ill and died. She has now appealed to the UK government to help her get back.&nbsp;

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My priority is the safety and security of this country. These are not judgments to be taken based purely on empathy <a href="https://t.co/FC2AjhCETk">https://t.co/FC2AjhCETk</a>
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Shamima's pleas to return to the UK have spurred debate all across, many believe that the right thing to do will be to make her face the UK justice system first before letting her in.

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tLWzltLC3rA" width="560"></iframe>

Shamima was one of the three British schoolgirls who joined the IS in 2015. According to reports in British media, Shamima says she is ready to face prison if she is allowed to return to the UK. Reportedly, she has not been in contact with her family.&nbsp;

The UK government is yet to take a definite stand on Begum's pleas, however, Home Secretary Sajid Javid has clearly stated that he will come down heavily on the return of Britons who joined IS and now seek to return.

In a piece published in a leading British newspaper, Javid noted that his priority as the home secretary is to ensure the safety and security of his country and to send a message to those who back terrorism.&nbsp;

Javid insisted the government should strip "dangerous individuals of their British citizenship".

"My priority is the safety and security of this country. These are not judgments to be taken based purely on empathy," Javid tweeted out on Sunday.&nbsp;

US President Donald Trump said late Saturday that the United States was asking Britain and other European allies "to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial."

The demand came as he prepared to declare the end of the group's so-called "caliphate", with US-led Arab and Kurdish forces close to capturing its last territorial holdout in Syria, ahead of a pull-out of American troops, AFP reported.

(With inputs from AFP)

&nbsp;

A British teenager, Shamima Begum, who left the United Kingdom to join terror outfit Islamic State in 2015 is now hoping to return home. Begum makes it clear that she does not regret her decision of joining the terror group.

A British teenager, Shamima Begum, who left the United Kingdom to join terror outfit Islamic State in 2015 is now hoping to return home. Begum makes it clear that she does not regret her decision of joining the terror group. Begum was only 15 when she went to Syria to marry an IS terrorist. Now, at 19, Shamima has given birth to a boy in a camp for the displaced in northern Syria. She says that her newborn son is the reason she wants to return home. "We, the family of Shamima Begum, have been informed that Shamima has given birth to her child," a statement released by Begum's family lawyer Mohammed Akunjee read. "As yet we have not had direct contact with Shamima, we are hoping to establish communications with her soon so that we can verify the above." Begum says she wants to return home to give a better life to her son, however, she maintains having no regrets over the choices she made in life. Begum gave birth to a girl and a boy during her time with the IS, both of them fell ill and died. She has now appealed to the UK government to help her get back. My priority is the safety and security of this country. These are not judgments to be taken based purely on empathy https://t.co/FC2AjhCETk — Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) February 17, 2019 × Shamima's pleas to return to the UK have spurred debate all across, many believe that the right thing to do will be to make her face the UK justice system first before letting her in. Shamima was one of the three British schoolgirls who joined the IS in 2015. According to reports in British media, Shamima says she is ready to face prison if she is allowed to return to the UK. Reportedly, she has not been in contact with her family. The UK government is yet to take a definite stand on Begum's pleas, however, Home Secretary Sajid Javid has clearly stated that he will come down heavily on the return of Britons who joined IS and now seek to return. In a piece published in a leading British newspaper, Javid noted that his priority as the home secretary is to ensure the safety and security of his country and to send a message to those who back terrorism. Javid insisted the government should strip "dangerous individuals of their British citizenship". "My priority is the safety and security of this country. These are not judgments to be taken based purely on empathy," Javid tweeted out on Sunday. US President Donald Trump said late Saturday that the United States was asking Britain and other European allies "to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial." The demand came as he prepared to declare the end of the group's so-called "caliphate", with US-led Arab and Kurdish forces close to capturing its last territorial holdout in Syria, ahead of a pull-out of American troops, AFP reported. (With inputs from AFP)

Judgment can't be taken based purely on empathy: UK home secretary on return of teen who married IS terrorist in Syria

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/pulwama-attack-shows-time-for-talks-over-now-world-have-to-act-pm-narendra-modi-198108">Pulwama attack shows time for talks over, now </a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/pulwama-attack-shows-time-for-talks-over-now-world-have-to-act-pm-narendra-modi-198108">world</a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/pulwama-attack-shows-time-for-talks-over-now-world-have-to-act-pm-narendra-modi-198108"> has to act: PM Narendra Modi</a> 
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the Pulwama terror attack has shown that time for talks is over and hesitation to take action against terrorism and those who support it is akin to encouraging the menace.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/pulwama-encounter-fierce-gun-battle-underway-dig-south-kashmir-injured-198102">Pulwama encounter: Fierce gun battle underway; DIG south Kashmir injured</a> 
 
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police South Kashmir range, Amit Kumar, who was injured in an exchange of fire with terrorists, has been shifted to Army hospital. His condition is stated to be stable.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/kulbhushan-jadhav-case-pakistan-embarrassed-to-disclose-charges-against-jadhav-says-india-at-icj-198089">Pakistan embarrassed to disclose charges against Kulbhushan Jadhav, says India at ICJ</a> 
 
India's began its argument on the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice at The Hague on Monday with former solicitor general of India Harish Salve asserting that "Pakistan was using the platform for propaganda purposes".

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/maldives-court-orders-arrest-of-ex-president-yameen-on-money-laundering-charges-198101">Maldives: Court orders arrest of ex-President Yameen on money laundering charges</a> 
 
Former Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen will be arrested and detained on money laundering charges, as per the order by a Maldivian court on Monday, news agency AFP reported.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/judgment-cant-be-taken-based-purely-on-empathy-uk-home-secretary-on-return-of-shamima-begum-who-married-is-terrorist-in-syria-198104">Judgment can't be taken based purely on empathy: UK home secretary on Shamima Begum's return</a>

A British teenager, Shamima Begum, who left the United Kingdom to join terror outfit Islamic State in 2015 is now hoping to return home. Begum makes it clear that she does not regret her decision of joining the terror group.

Pulwama attack shows time for talks over, now world has to act: PM Narendra Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the Pulwama terror attack has shown that time for talks is over and hesitation to take action against terrorism and those who support it is akin to encouraging the menace.

Pulwama attack shows time for talks over, now world has to act: PM Narendra Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the Pulwama terror attack has shown that time for talks is over and hesitation to take action against terrorism and those who support it is akin to encouraging the menace. Pulwama encounter: Fierce gun battle underway; DIG south Kashmir injured Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police South Kashmir range, Amit Kumar, who was injured in an exchange of fire with terrorists, has been shifted to Army hospital. His condition is stated to be stable. Pakistan embarrassed to disclose charges against Kulbhushan Jadhav, says India at ICJ India's began its argument on the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice at The Hague on Monday with former solicitor general of India Harish Salve asserting that "Pakistan was using the platform for propaganda purposes". Maldives: Court orders arrest of ex-President Yameen on money laundering charges Former Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen will be arrested and detained on money laundering charges, as per the order by a Maldivian court on Monday, news agency AFP reported. Judgment can't be taken based purely on empathy: UK home secretary on Shamima Begum's return A British teenager, Shamima Begum, who left the United Kingdom to join terror outfit Islamic State in 2015 is now hoping to return home. Begum makes it clear that she does not regret her decision of joining the terror group.

News brief: Big stories of the day

Germany vowed Monday to prosecute German IS fighters but warned that it would be "extremely difficult" to organise the repatriation of European nationals from Syria after US President Donald Trump called on allies to take back alleged jihadists.

Syria's US-backed Kurdish forces, which are battling Islamic State group jihadists in their last redoubt in eastern Syria, hold hundreds of suspected foreign IS fighters and the calls for their reluctant home countries to take them back have grown in urgency.

"We must be able to ensure that prosecution is possible," Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen told Bild daily.

Underlining the difficulties however of putting the ex-fighters on trial, the minister noted that there is "no government in Syria with which we have a sensible relationship".

President Bashar "Assad cannot be our counterpart, the Syrian-democratic forces are not a unity government," she added, stressing that proof and witness statements needed to be secured in Syria if the militants are to be put on trial.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said separately that a return could only be possible if "we can guarantee that these people can be immediately sent here to appear in court and that they will be detained".

For this, "we need judicial information, and this is not yet the case," Maas told ARD television late Sunday. Under such conditions, repatriation would be "extremely difficult to achieve".

Berlin wants to "consult with France and Britain... over how to proceed," he said.

The subject is to be raised on Monday at a meeting of European foreign ministers called to discuss among other issues "the situation in Syria, in particular, the recent developments on the ground," according to an agenda for the talks.

Trump on Sunday called on his European allies to take back alleged jihadists captured in Syria.

IS imposed a self-declared caliphate across parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq from 2014, but has since lost all of it except a tiny patch of less than half a square kilometre near the Iraqi border.

After years of fighting IS, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hold hundreds of foreigners accused of fighting for the group, as well as their wives and children.

Syria's Kurds have repeatedly called for their countries of origin to take them back, but these nations have been reluctant.

"The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial," Trump said in a tweet, using another acronym for IS.

After initial reluctance, Paris appears ready to consider the return of its nationals.

In Belgium, Justice Minister Koen Geens called for a "European solution" on Sunday, calling for "calm reflection and looking at what would be the least security risks".

Germany vowed Monday to prosecute German IS fighters but warned that it would be "extremely difficult" to organise the repatriation of European nationals from Syria after US President Donald Trump called on allies to take back alleged jihadists.

Germany vowed Monday to prosecute German IS fighters but warned that it would be "extremely difficult" to organise the repatriation of European nationals from Syria after US President Donald Trump called on allies to take back alleged jihadists. Syria's US-backed Kurdish forces, which are battling Islamic State group jihadists in their last redoubt in eastern Syria, hold hundreds of suspected foreign IS fighters and the calls for their reluctant home countries to take them back have grown in urgency. "We must be able to ensure that prosecution is possible," Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen told Bild daily. Underlining the difficulties however of putting the ex-fighters on trial, the minister noted that there is "no government in Syria with which we have a sensible relationship". President Bashar "Assad cannot be our counterpart, the Syrian-democratic forces are not a unity government," she added, stressing that proof and witness statements needed to be secured in Syria if the militants are to be put on trial. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said separately that a return could only be possible if "we can guarantee that these people can be immediately sent here to appear in court and that they will be detained". For this, "we need judicial information, and this is not yet the case," Maas told ARD television late Sunday. Under such conditions, repatriation would be "extremely difficult to achieve". Berlin wants to "consult with France and Britain... over how to proceed," he said. The subject is to be raised on Monday at a meeting of European foreign ministers called to discuss among other issues "the situation in Syria, in particular, the recent developments on the ground," according to an agenda for the talks. Trump on Sunday called on his European allies to take back alleged jihadists captured in Syria. IS imposed a self-declared caliphate across parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq from 2014, but has since lost all of it except a tiny patch of less than half a square kilometre near the Iraqi border. After years of fighting IS, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hold hundreds of foreigners accused of fighting for the group, as well as their wives and children. Syria's Kurds have repeatedly called for their countries of origin to take them back, but these nations have been reluctant. "The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial," Trump said in a tweet, using another acronym for IS. After initial reluctance, Paris appears ready to consider the return of its nationals. In Belgium, Justice Minister Koen Geens called for a "European solution" on Sunday, calling for "calm reflection and looking at what would be the least security risks".

Germany wants trial for Syria jihadists but warns of difficulties

Shamima Begum wants to return to UK after giving birth to boy

The week that was, in pictures

Britain is ready to do "all that is required" to neutralise the threat from the Islamic State group, defence minister Gavin Williamson said Wednesday after the US suggested creating a new international mission in northeast Syria.

Acting US defence secretary Patrick Shanahan said he would consult with allies at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels about the "potential" for an observer force in northeast Syria after American forces pull out.

US-backed forces are currently in the fifth day of a fierce battle to expel IS fighters from their last holdout in eastern Syria -- the final remaining scrap of the "caliphate" the jihadists declared in 2014.

But the US is set to withdraw its 2,000 troops from the country, as announced by President Donald Trump in December, in a move that shocked America's allies and raised security fears for the region.&nbsp;

Asked if Britain would support an observer force with boots on the ground, Williamson did not demur but pledged to carry on the fight against IS, also known as Daesh.

"We recognise the fact the threat of Daesh is going to evolve and it's going to change and it's going to disperse," Williamson said as he arrived for the NATO meeting.

"We will continue to do all that is required to ensure that Britain and our allies remain safe."

Shanahan visited Baghdad on Tuesday to reassure Iraqi leaders after President Donald Trump angered many by saying he wanted to maintain some troops at the Al-Asad airbase, northwest of Baghdad, to keep an eye on Iran.

Afterwards, Shanahan said he would use the NATO meeting to discuss "where we can take advantage of the opportunities there... in terms of the potential in the northeast, Syria to establish an observer force" to ensure stability in the longer term.

The international anti-IS coalition, which includes the US and many NATO countries as well as Middle Eastern nations, could be an option for the proposed force, Shanahan said. 
&nbsp;

Britain is ready to do "all that is required" to neutralise the threat from the Islamic State group, defence minister Gavin Williamson said Wednesday after the US suggested creating a new international mission in northeast Syria.

Britain is ready to do "all that is required" to neutralise the threat from the Islamic State group, defence minister Gavin Williamson said Wednesday after the US suggested creating a new international mission in northeast Syria. Acting US defence secretary Patrick Shanahan said he would consult with allies at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels about the "potential" for an observer force in northeast Syria after American forces pull out. US-backed forces are currently in the fifth day of a fierce battle to expel IS fighters from their last holdout in eastern Syria -- the final remaining scrap of the "caliphate" the jihadists declared in 2014. But the US is set to withdraw its 2,000 troops from the country, as announced by President Donald Trump in December, in a move that shocked America's allies and raised security fears for the region. Asked if Britain would support an observer force with boots on the ground, Williamson did not demur but pledged to carry on the fight against IS, also known as Daesh. "We recognise the fact the threat of Daesh is going to evolve and it's going to change and it's going to disperse," Williamson said as he arrived for the NATO meeting. "We will continue to do all that is required to ensure that Britain and our allies remain safe." Shanahan visited Baghdad on Tuesday to reassure Iraqi leaders after President Donald Trump angered many by saying he wanted to maintain some troops at the Al-Asad airbase, northwest of Baghdad, to keep an eye on Iran. Afterwards, Shanahan said he would use the NATO meeting to discuss "where we can take advantage of the opportunities there... in terms of the potential in the northeast, Syria to establish an observer force" to ensure stability in the longer term. The international anti-IS coalition, which includes the US and many NATO countries as well as Middle Eastern nations, could be an option for the proposed force, Shanahan said.

Britain will 'do what it takes' to beat IS: Defence minister Gavin Williamson

They were born in a "state" that no longer exists, most to fathers who are dead and mothers whose countries don't want them back. These are the children pouring out of Baghouz.

Their grimy faces are the only ones visible in the sea of black veils worn by their mothers, packed in the back of a dozen pickup trucks spiriting them away from the Islamic State <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/hundreds-flee-us-backed-syria-battle-for-last-is-holdout-196955">group's last holdout in eastern Syria</a>.

There are infants as young as three months old, their ceaseless, hungry wails synching into a single howl. The older toddlers stare in silence at the gathered journalists.

They seem to be dressed in everything they could pile on, tiny knit sweaters and hats, puffer jackets, blankets.

It is hard to tell how thin or young their mothers are under their all-encompassing black robes, but their eyes are gaunt and sunken, their bone-thin hands blackened with dirt.

Food and safe drinking water have been scarce for weeks as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces closed in on the last IS enclave near the flat, desolate village of Baghouz.

But somehow, even as the "caliphate" was dying, babies were still being born.

Khadija is one year old, born under IS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

She is swaddled in a thick blanket by her mother, a 17-year-old Syrian girl from 500 kilometres (300 miles) away in the northern city of Manbij.

Her father, just as young, has been rounded up by the SDF and placed into another truck with dozens of men.

Uncertain future&nbsp;

Asked what she hoped for her daughter, Marah pulled back the blanket from her daughter's face and just stared blankly.

There are other nationalities too — Iraqi, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian and French.&nbsp;

What awaits them? An uncertain future in a pair of displaced persons' camps run by the Kurdish administration of northern Syria, where thousands of others like them are already being held.

To get there, they cross hundreds of kilometres (miles) of the desert plain in the open-back trucks, exposed to the rain and other elements.

On either side of the desolate route lie the tattered belongings of those with little else: a torn suitcase, a ripped grey sweater, a navy blue stroller turned on its side.&nbsp;

At least 35 children have died on the route or just after arrival, according to the United Nations, most of the hypothermia.&nbsp;

In the Al-Hol reception centre, women and children - most of them under five - sit on piles of blankets, waiting for a tent to become available.

In the nearby health clinic, veiled women lay their haggard toddlers on a table for a doctor with worn-out eyes to examine.

A 19-year-old with an infant on her hip emerges from the women's clinic.

"I just found out I'm pregnant."

They were born in a "state" that no longer exists, most to fathers who are dead and mothers whose countries don't want them back. These are the children pouring out of Baghouz.

They were born in a "state" that no longer exists, most to fathers who are dead and mothers whose countries don't want them back. These are the children pouring out of Baghouz. Their grimy faces are the only ones visible in the sea of black veils worn by their mothers, packed in the back of a dozen pickup trucks spiriting them away from the Islamic State group's last holdout in eastern Syria. There are infants as young as three months old, their ceaseless, hungry wails synching into a single howl. The older toddlers stare in silence at the gathered journalists. They seem to be dressed in everything they could pile on, tiny knit sweaters and hats, puffer jackets, blankets. It is hard to tell how thin or young their mothers are under their all-encompassing black robes, but their eyes are gaunt and sunken, their bone-thin hands blackened with dirt. Food and safe drinking water have been scarce for weeks as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces closed in on the last IS enclave near the flat, desolate village of Baghouz. But somehow, even as the "caliphate" was dying, babies were still being born. Khadija is one year old, born under IS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. She is swaddled in a thick blanket by her mother, a 17-year-old Syrian girl from 500 kilometres (300 miles) away in the northern city of Manbij. Her father, just as young, has been rounded up by the SDF and placed into another truck with dozens of men. Uncertain future Asked what she hoped for her daughter, Marah pulled back the blanket from her daughter's face and just stared blankly. There are other nationalities too — Iraqi, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian and French. What awaits them? An uncertain future in a pair of displaced persons' camps run by the Kurdish administration of northern Syria, where thousands of others like them are already being held. To get there, they cross hundreds of kilometres (miles) of the desert plain in the open-back trucks, exposed to the rain and other elements. On either side of the desolate route lie the tattered belongings of those with little else: a torn suitcase, a ripped grey sweater, a navy blue stroller turned on its side. At least 35 children have died on the route or just after arrival, according to the United Nations, most of the hypothermia. In the Al-Hol reception centre, women and children - most of them under five - sit on piles of blankets, waiting for a tent to become available. In the nearby health clinic, veiled women lay their haggard toddlers on a table for a doctor with worn-out eyes to examine. A 19-year-old with an infant on her hip emerges from the women's clinic. "I just found out I'm pregnant."

In eastern Syria, the infants of a dying IS 'caliphate'

US-backed forces pressed the battle to expel diehard jihadists from the last pocket of land under their control in eastern Syria on Tuesday after hundreds fled the holdout overnight.

The extremist group declared a cross-border "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq in 2014, but various military campaigns have chipped it down to a fragment on the Iraqi border.

After a pause of more than a week to allow out civilians, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared the last push to retake the "Baghouz pocket" from the extremists on Saturday.

Aided by the warplanes and artillery of a US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led alliance has made way into a patch of four square kilometres (one square mile).

SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/seven-children-among-16-killed-in-strike-on-islamic-state-syria-holdout-war-monitor-196790">heavy clashes were ongoing</a> on Tuesday after hundreds fled the battle zone overnight.

"A group of 600 civilians escaped from Baghouz at one in the morning and they are being searched now," he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the new arrivals included women and children from France and Germany.

"Most of those who got out are foreigners," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Coalition spokesperson Sean Ryan said US-backed forces were facing a fierce fightback.

"The progress is slow and methodical as the enemy is fully entrenched and IS fighters continue to conduct counter-attacks," he said.

"The coalition continues to strike at IS targets whenever available."

The SDF launched the battle to expel IS from the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in September, slowly tightening the noose around the jihadists and their families since December.

French women

In the past two months, more than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of jihadist fighters, have fled into SDF-held areas, the Observatory says.

That figure includes some 3,400 suspected jihadists detained by the SDF, according to the Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information.

On Monday, AFP saw dozens of new arrivals at an SDF-held screening location.

Dozens of coalition and SDF fighters were stationed at a screening point for new arrivals from IS areas.

Coalition forces stood over about 20 men who were crouching on the ground.

Two French women told AFP they paid smugglers to take them out of the battered IS-held holdout, but Iraqi jihadists had prevented other foreigners from leaving.

"They said only the Syrians and Iraqis can be smuggled out," said one of the women, who gave her first name as Christelle, from the city of Bordeaux.

Bali, the SDF spokesman, said on Saturday that up to 600 jihadists could remain inside the pocket.

But the group's elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who proclaimed the "caliphate" in 2014 was likely not there, he said.

At the height of their proto-state, Baghdadi's followers implemented their brutal implementation of Islamic law in an area the size of the United Kingdom.

But various offensives, including by the US-backed SDF and Russia-backed regime forces, have taken back all but a morsel of that territory near the village of Baghouz.

'Clearing operations'

Once the "caliphate" is declared over, the fight will continue to eliminate IS sleeper cells, the SDF and their allies have said.

"After Baghouz, clearing operations will have to take place as well," Ryan said.

"IS has purposely left IEDs (improvised explosive devices) behind to intentionally kill innocent civilians."

The jihadist group, also known as ISIS, retains a presence in Syria's vast Badia desert and has continued to claim deadly attacks in SDF-held areas.

US President Donald Trump on Monday said that the coalition may declare victory over IS in the region in the coming days.

"Our brave warriors have liberated virtually 100 per cent of ISIS (territory) in Iraq and Syria," he said.

"Soon it will be announced, soon, maybe over the next week, maybe less," he told a rally in the US city of El Paso.

Trump shocked Washington's allies in December by announcing a pullout of all 2,000 US troops from war-torn Syria.

The decision has left Syria's Kurds scrambling for protection from Damascus against a long-threatened attack by neighbouring Turkey.

After decades of marginalisation, the Kurds have largely stayed out of the eight-year civil war, instead of setting up their own semi-autonomous institutions in northeast Syria.

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. 
&nbsp;

US-backed forces pressed the battle to expel diehard jihadists from the last pocket of land under their control in eastern Syria on Tuesday after hundreds fled the holdout overnight.

US-backed forces pressed the battle to expel diehard jihadists from the last pocket of land under their control in eastern Syria on Tuesday after hundreds fled the holdout overnight. The extremist group declared a cross-border "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq in 2014, but various military campaigns have chipped it down to a fragment on the Iraqi border. After a pause of more than a week to allow out civilians, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared the last push to retake the "Baghouz pocket" from the extremists on Saturday. Aided by the warplanes and artillery of a US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led alliance has made way into a patch of four square kilometres (one square mile). SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said heavy clashes were ongoing on Tuesday after hundreds fled the battle zone overnight. "A group of 600 civilians escaped from Baghouz at one in the morning and they are being searched now," he said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the new arrivals included women and children from France and Germany. "Most of those who got out are foreigners," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. Coalition spokesperson Sean Ryan said US-backed forces were facing a fierce fightback. "The progress is slow and methodical as the enemy is fully entrenched and IS fighters continue to conduct counter-attacks," he said. "The coalition continues to strike at IS targets whenever available." The SDF launched the battle to expel IS from the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in September, slowly tightening the noose around the jihadists and their families since December. French women In the past two months, more than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of jihadist fighters, have fled into SDF-held areas, the Observatory says. That figure includes some 3,400 suspected jihadists detained by the SDF, according to the Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information. On Monday, AFP saw dozens of new arrivals at an SDF-held screening location. Dozens of coalition and SDF fighters were stationed at a screening point for new arrivals from IS areas. Coalition forces stood over about 20 men who were crouching on the ground. Two French women told AFP they paid smugglers to take them out of the battered IS-held holdout, but Iraqi jihadists had prevented other foreigners from leaving. "They said only the Syrians and Iraqis can be smuggled out," said one of the women, who gave her first name as Christelle, from the city of Bordeaux. Bali, the SDF spokesman, said on Saturday that up to 600 jihadists could remain inside the pocket. But the group's elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who proclaimed the "caliphate" in 2014 was likely not there, he said. At the height of their proto-state, Baghdadi's followers implemented their brutal implementation of Islamic law in an area the size of the United Kingdom. But various offensives, including by the US-backed SDF and Russia-backed regime forces, have taken back all but a morsel of that territory near the village of Baghouz. 'Clearing operations' Once the "caliphate" is declared over, the fight will continue to eliminate IS sleeper cells, the SDF and their allies have said. "After Baghouz, clearing operations will have to take place as well," Ryan said. "IS has purposely left IEDs (improvised explosive devices) behind to intentionally kill innocent civilians." The jihadist group, also known as ISIS, retains a presence in Syria's vast Badia desert and has continued to claim deadly attacks in SDF-held areas. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that the coalition may declare victory over IS in the region in the coming days. "Our brave warriors have liberated virtually 100 per cent of ISIS (territory) in Iraq and Syria," he said. "Soon it will be announced, soon, maybe over the next week, maybe less," he told a rally in the US city of El Paso. Trump shocked Washington's allies in December by announcing a pullout of all 2,000 US troops from war-torn Syria. The decision has left Syria's Kurds scrambling for protection from Damascus against a long-threatened attack by neighbouring Turkey. After decades of marginalisation, the Kurds have largely stayed out of the eight-year civil war, instead of setting up their own semi-autonomous institutions in northeast Syria. Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Hundreds flee US-backed Syria battle for last IS holdout

US-backed Syrian forces begin attack on final IS stronghold

<a href="http://13.232.42.114/world/us-backed-syrian-forces-launch-final-battle-against-islamic-state-enclave-196295">US-backed forces</a> were locked in fierce fighting as they pressed the battle against the last shred of the <a href="http://13.232.42.114/world/us-backed-syrian-force-to-start-final-battle-against-is-enclave-196281">Islamic State group's "caliphate" in eastern Syria</a> on Sunday, a war monitor said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by a US-led coalition, announced a final push to retake the jihadist pocket near the Iraqi border late Saturday, after a pause of more than a week to allow civilians to flee.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy clashes between both sides on Sunday morning, as coalition planes and artillery bombarded jihadist positions.

"The battle is ongoing. There were heavy clashes this morning, with landmines going off," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based war monitor.

The SDF launched an offensive to expel IS from the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in September.

The Kurdish-led alliance has since whittled down jihadist-held territory to a patch of just four square kilometres (one square mile) on the eastern banks of the Euphrates.

Up to 600 jihadists could still remain inside, most of them foreigners, according to SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali.

Since fighting intensified in December, more than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of jihadist fighters, have fled out into SDF-held desert areas, the Observatory says.

That figure includes some 3,200 suspected jihadists detained by the SDF, according to the monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information.

At the height of their rule, the jihadists imposed their brutal interpretation of Islamic law on a territory spanning parts of Syria and Iraq that was roughly the size of Britain.&nbsp;

But separate military offensives in both countries, including by the SDF, have since retaken the vast bulk of the cross-border "caliphate" they declared in 2014.&nbsp;

US-backed forces were locked in fierce fighting as they pressed the battle against the last shred of the Islamic State group's "caliphate" in eastern Syria on Sunday, a war monitor said.

US-backed forces were locked in fierce fighting as they pressed the battle against the last shred of the Islamic State group's "caliphate" in eastern Syria on Sunday, a war monitor said. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by a US-led coalition, announced a final push to retake the jihadist pocket near the Iraqi border late Saturday, after a pause of more than a week to allow civilians to flee. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy clashes between both sides on Sunday morning, as coalition planes and artillery bombarded jihadist positions. "The battle is ongoing. There were heavy clashes this morning, with landmines going off," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based war monitor. The SDF launched an offensive to expel IS from the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in September. The Kurdish-led alliance has since whittled down jihadist-held territory to a patch of just four square kilometres (one square mile) on the eastern banks of the Euphrates. Up to 600 jihadists could still remain inside, most of them foreigners, according to SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali. Since fighting intensified in December, more than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of jihadist fighters, have fled out into SDF-held desert areas, the Observatory says. That figure includes some 3,200 suspected jihadists detained by the SDF, according to the monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information. At the height of their rule, the jihadists imposed their brutal interpretation of Islamic law on a territory spanning parts of Syria and Iraq that was roughly the size of Britain. But separate military offensives in both countries, including by the SDF, have since retaken the vast bulk of the cross-border "caliphate" they declared in 2014.

'Heavy clashes' as US-backed forces battle Islamic State in Syria: Report

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will start an assault on Saturday against Islamic State's last enclave in the part of Syria where a US-led coalition has been supporting operations against the group, an SDF official told Reuters.

The United States said on January&nbsp;29 that Islamic State was expected to lose the final chunk of territory within a couple of weeks.

"The battle will be launched this evening and its mission will be to eliminate the last remnants of the terrorist organisation," Mustafa Bali, the head of the SDF media office, said, describing it as the "last battle".

He said in the last 10 days SDF fighters had handled the battle "patiently" as more than 20,000 civilians were evacuated from the besieged enclave comprising two villages near the Iraqi border.

The SDF, backed by the US-led coalition, has driven Islamic State out of a swathe of territory in northern and eastern Syria.

After defeating the jihadists from their Syrian headquarters at Raqqa in October 2017, the SDF advanced southwards into Deir al-Zor province, attacking them in territory on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.

Islamic State still has a territorial foothold in Syria west of the Euphrates in a part of the country otherwise held by the Syrian government and its allies.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will start an assault on Saturday against Islamic State's last enclave in the part of Syria where a US-led coalition has been supporting operations against the group, an SDF official told Reuters.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will start an assault on Saturday against Islamic State's last enclave in the part of Syria where a US-led coalition has been supporting operations against the group, an SDF official told Reuters. The United States said on January 29 that Islamic State was expected to lose the final chunk of territory within a couple of weeks. "The battle will be launched this evening and its mission will be to eliminate the last remnants of the terrorist organisation," Mustafa Bali, the head of the SDF media office, said, describing it as the "last battle". He said in the last 10 days SDF fighters had handled the battle "patiently" as more than 20,000 civilians were evacuated from the besieged enclave comprising two villages near the Iraqi border. The SDF, backed by the US-led coalition, has driven Islamic State out of a swathe of territory in northern and eastern Syria. After defeating the jihadists from their Syrian headquarters at Raqqa in October 2017, the SDF advanced southwards into Deir al-Zor province, attacking them in territory on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. Islamic State still has a territorial foothold in Syria west of the Euphrates in a part of the country otherwise held by the Syrian government and its allies.

US-backed Syrian force to start 'final battle' against IS enclave

Recent gains by Kurdish-led forces in Syria have shrunk <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/are-all-the-people-who-worked-for-islamic-state-evil-18355">the Islamic State group's "caliphate"</a> to less than one percent of its original size, the US-led coalition said on Thursday.

Major General Christopher Ghika, the coalition's deputy commander, described the size of the last patch of land held by the jihadists as "now less than one percent of the original caliphate".

The coalition and allied Kurdish forces have captured "approximately 99.5 percent" of IS-controlled territory, he said in a statement.

At its height, the jihadist proto-state proclaimed by IS in Syria and Iraq in June 2014 was roughly the size of Britain.

But it has since lost most of that territory to various offensives.

The jihadists are now clinging on to a small sliver of land near the village of Baghouz in eastern Syria and many residents are fleeing and turning themselves in ahead of a final offensive.&nbsp;

Jihadists "are attempting to escape through intermixing with the innocent women and children attempting to flee the fighting", coalition deputy commanding general Christopher Ghika was quoted as saying.

"These tactics won't succeed, our Syrian partners are focused on finding ISIS wherever they hide, and our Iraqi partners have secured their borders," he said, using another acronym for IS.&nbsp;

More than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of jihadist fighters, have fled IS territory since the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the US-led coalition, intensified its offensive in December, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based war monitor has said that figure includes some 3,200 suspected jihadists.

Recent gains by Kurdish-led forces in Syria have shrunk the Islamic State group's "caliphate" to less than one percent of its original size, the US-led coalition said on Thursday.

Recent gains by Kurdish-led forces in Syria have shrunk the Islamic State group's "caliphate" to less than one percent of its original size, the US-led coalition said on Thursday. Major General Christopher Ghika, the coalition's deputy commander, described the size of the last patch of land held by the jihadists as "now less than one percent of the original caliphate". The coalition and allied Kurdish forces have captured "approximately 99.5 percent" of IS-controlled territory, he said in a statement. At its height, the jihadist proto-state proclaimed by IS in Syria and Iraq in June 2014 was roughly the size of Britain. But it has since lost most of that territory to various offensives. The jihadists are now clinging on to a small sliver of land near the village of Baghouz in eastern Syria and many residents are fleeing and turning themselves in ahead of a final offensive. Jihadists "are attempting to escape through intermixing with the innocent women and children attempting to flee the fighting", coalition deputy commanding general Christopher Ghika was quoted as saying. "These tactics won't succeed, our Syrian partners are focused on finding ISIS wherever they hide, and our Iraqi partners have secured their borders," he said, using another acronym for IS. More than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of jihadist fighters, have fled IS territory since the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the US-led coalition, intensified its offensive in December, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Britain-based war monitor has said that figure includes some 3,200 suspected jihadists.

Islamic State down to less than 1% of original 'caliphate': US-led coalition

Australia failed to make basic checks before stripping a suspected <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/australia-asks-turkey-to-extradite-top-is-terror-suspect-9349?amp">Islamic State fighter</a> of his citizenship, a senior official said Wednesday, an admission likely to call into question the legality of the move.

The country last month striped Neil Prakash of citizenship after claiming he was Fijian — prompting strenuous denials from the authorities in Suva and an embarrassing diplomatic rift.

Prakash is accused of being a member of the IS jihadist group and identified as the 12th Australian dual-national to lose their passport over terrorism links.

He is currently in Turkey facing charges of joining the organisation.

A parliamentary intelligence committee on Wednesday grilled Home Affairs officials on the issue, asking whether they verified his status with Fiji or consulted experts in Fijian law before revoking Prakash's citizenship.

"No, we did not" admitted senior department official Linda Geddes.

If Prakash is neither Fijian nor Australian he would now be stateless in contravention of decades-old UN accords and Australian law.

A Special Counsel advising the government told the parliamentary committee he offered "strong advice" on the case, but would not go into detail.

The move against Prakash was touted at the time by hardline Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton as the ruling Liberal Party eyed its base supporters and May elections.

But it created an awkward backdrop for a recent landmark Pacific visit by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Australia failed to make basic checks before stripping a suspected Islamic State fighter of his citizenship, a senior official said Wednesday, an admission likely to call into question the legality of the move.

Australia failed to make basic checks before stripping a suspected Islamic State fighter of his citizenship, a senior official said Wednesday, an admission likely to call into question the legality of the move. The country last month striped Neil Prakash of citizenship after claiming he was Fijian — prompting strenuous denials from the authorities in Suva and an embarrassing diplomatic rift. Prakash is accused of being a member of the IS jihadist group and identified as the 12th Australian dual-national to lose their passport over terrorism links. He is currently in Turkey facing charges of joining the organisation. A parliamentary intelligence committee on Wednesday grilled Home Affairs officials on the issue, asking whether they verified his status with Fiji or consulted experts in Fijian law before revoking Prakash's citizenship. "No, we did not" admitted senior department official Linda Geddes. If Prakash is neither Fijian nor Australian he would now be stateless in contravention of decades-old UN accords and Australian law. A Special Counsel advising the government told the parliamentary committee he offered "strong advice" on the case, but would not go into detail. The move against Prakash was touted at the time by hardline Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton as the ruling Liberal Party eyed its base supporters and May elections. But it created an awkward backdrop for a recent landmark Pacific visit by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Australia admits misstep over Islamic State suspect

Four Iraqi policemen were killed Sunday in two back-to-back bomb blasts at one of their positions north of the capital, near a former jihadist bastion, local officials and officers said.

"At around 8:00 am, the police officers were taking up their post at the southern entrance of Al-Sharqat," the town's mayor, Ali Dodah, told AFP.

"One bomb went off, killing two police officers and wounding eight. An hour and a half later, as reinforcements arrived, a second bomb went off," Dodah said.

A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the first blast's toll to AFP and said the second explosion killed two officers and wounded three.

And a medical source at Al-Sharqat's hospital confirmed a total of four officers were killed. &nbsp;

Al-Sharqat, around 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad, was held by the Islamic State group until autumn 2017.

It was one of the last areas recaptured by the government, which announced several months later that it had ousted IS from Iraq.

But hit-and-run attacks — particularly assassinations and kidnappings of local officials — still take place and hint at an underground network of IS sleeper cells in some of the country's most remote areas.&nbsp;

On Thursday, a car bomb killed a police officer near Hawija, another former IS stronghold.&nbsp;

Four Iraqi policemen were killed Sunday in two back-to-back bomb blasts at one of their positions north of the capital, near a former jihadist bastion, local officials and officers said.

Four Iraqi policemen were killed Sunday in two back-to-back bomb blasts at one of their positions north of the capital, near a former jihadist bastion, local officials and officers said. "At around 8:00 am, the police officers were taking up their post at the southern entrance of Al-Sharqat," the town's mayor, Ali Dodah, told AFP. "One bomb went off, killing two police officers and wounding eight. An hour and a half later, as reinforcements arrived, a second bomb went off," Dodah said. A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the first blast's toll to AFP and said the second explosion killed two officers and wounded three. And a medical source at Al-Sharqat's hospital confirmed a total of four officers were killed. Al-Sharqat, around 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad, was held by the Islamic State group until autumn 2017. It was one of the last areas recaptured by the government, which announced several months later that it had ousted IS from Iraq. But hit-and-run attacks — particularly assassinations and kidnappings of local officials — still take place and hint at an underground network of IS sleeper cells in some of the country's most remote areas. On Thursday, a car bomb killed a police officer near Hawija, another former IS stronghold.

Four policemen dead in back-to-back bomb blasts in Iraq

Pakistani counter-terrorism officers on Saturday killed four terrorists, including two women and a local ISIS commander, in an 'intelligence-based operation' in Punjab province.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police said that it was an 'intelligence-based operation' conducted against IS in the Sahiwal district, some 200kms from Lahore.

"A CTD team tried to intercept a car and a motorcycle carrying the terrorists near the Sahiwal toll plaza, however, they started firing at them and a shootout ensued," the CTD spokesperson said.

"Four people, including two women and the local ISIS commander, have been killed and one child has been injured in the cross-fire," the spokesperson said.

"The terrorists and three other accomplices who managed to flee were involved in the kidnapping of an American, a senior officer of the Pakistan Army and the son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani," Inspector General Police Punjab Amjad Javed Saleemi said in a statement.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered a probe into the incident after the family of one of the victims killed in the encounter, claimed that police shot him dead along with his wife and his teenage daughter in a 'stage encounter'.

According to the CTD report submitted to Saleemi, "A CTD team did a joint intelligence-based operation in which four terrorists related to defunct organisation ISIS were killed. Weapons and explosive material have been recovered from their possession."

The report further said the operation was in continuation of the operation conducted in Faisalabad on last Tuesday.

"The CTD was tracking remaining terrorists. On Saturday, information was received that the remaining terrorists were travelling towards Sahiwal with arms and explosives. They travel with families to avoid police checking," the report said.

"This local terror network had also killed dozens of people in blasts and firing. It was the most dangerous network of the ISIS in Punjab," the CTD said.

Three children, aged between four and nine, of the dead couple, were also travelling along with their family members. Two minor girls remained unhurt while the nine-year-old boy sustained a bullet injury who was shifted to hospital where is condition is stated to be out of danger.

Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the actual picture of the incident will become clear after a thorough investigation into the incident.

"Apparently it seems that the terrorists used 'human shield' to protect themselves," he said.

Pakistani counter-terrorism officers on Saturday killed four terrorists, including two women and a local ISIS commander, in an 'intelligence-based operation' in Punjab province.

Pakistani counter-terrorism officers on Saturday killed four terrorists, including two women and a local ISIS commander, in an 'intelligence-based operation' in Punjab province. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police said that it was an 'intelligence-based operation' conducted against IS in the Sahiwal district, some 200kms from Lahore. "A CTD team tried to intercept a car and a motorcycle carrying the terrorists near the Sahiwal toll plaza, however, they started firing at them and a shootout ensued," the CTD spokesperson said. "Four people, including two women and the local ISIS commander, have been killed and one child has been injured in the cross-fire," the spokesperson said. "The terrorists and three other accomplices who managed to flee were involved in the kidnapping of an American, a senior officer of the Pakistan Army and the son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani," Inspector General Police Punjab Amjad Javed Saleemi said in a statement. Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered a probe into the incident after the family of one of the victims killed in the encounter, claimed that police shot him dead along with his wife and his teenage daughter in a 'stage encounter'. According to the CTD report submitted to Saleemi, "A CTD team did a joint intelligence-based operation in which four terrorists related to defunct organisation ISIS were killed. Weapons and explosive material have been recovered from their possession." The report further said the operation was in continuation of the operation conducted in Faisalabad on last Tuesday. "The CTD was tracking remaining terrorists. On Saturday, information was received that the remaining terrorists were travelling towards Sahiwal with arms and explosives. They travel with families to avoid police checking," the report said. "This local terror network had also killed dozens of people in blasts and firing. It was the most dangerous network of the ISIS in Punjab," the CTD said. Three children, aged between four and nine, of the dead couple, were also travelling along with their family members. Two minor girls remained unhurt while the nine-year-old boy sustained a bullet injury who was shifted to hospital where is condition is stated to be out of danger. Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the actual picture of the incident will become clear after a thorough investigation into the incident. "Apparently it seems that the terrorists used 'human shield' to protect themselves," he said.

4 terrorists killed in encounter in Pakistan

A senior commander of the Islamic State militant group was killed in Afghanistan in a raid, US Forces Afghanistan said on Saturday.

Khetab Emir was killed in the raid on January 10 in the eastern area of Nangarhar province, said Lt. Ubon Mendie, a spokesman for the US forces based in Afghanistan.

Emir, who was known by multiple names, facilitated high-profile attacks and supplied Islamic State fighters with weapons and materials to make explosives, Mendie said in a statement.

"His removal helps protect innocent Afghans from future Islamic State violence and weakens their presence in Nangarhar," Mendie said.

Islamic State fighters have developed a stronghold in the province on Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan and have become one of the country's most dangerous militant groups.

The hardline militant group's local affiliate, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has been active since 2015, fighting the Taliban as well as Afghan and foreign forces.

The fight against Islamic State and other militant groups including Al Qaeda and the Taliban is at the heart of the US-led counterterrorism mission being conducted alongside the NATO-led Resolute Support operation aimed at training and advising Afghan security forces.

A senior commander of the Islamic State militant group was killed in Afghanistan in a raid, US Forces Afghanistan said on Saturday. Khetab Emir was killed in the raid on January 10 in the eastern area of Nangarhar province, said Lt.

A senior commander of the Islamic State militant group was killed in Afghanistan in a raid, US Forces Afghanistan said on Saturday. Khetab Emir was killed in the raid on January 10 in the eastern area of Nangarhar province, said Lt. Ubon Mendie, a spokesman for the US forces based in Afghanistan. Emir, who was known by multiple names, facilitated high-profile attacks and supplied Islamic State fighters with weapons and materials to make explosives, Mendie said in a statement. "His removal helps protect innocent Afghans from future Islamic State violence and weakens their presence in Nangarhar," Mendie said. Islamic State fighters have developed a stronghold in the province on Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan and have become one of the country's most dangerous militant groups. The hardline militant group's local affiliate, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has been active since 2015, fighting the Taliban as well as Afghan and foreign forces. The fight against Islamic State and other militant groups including Al Qaeda and the Taliban is at the heart of the US-led counterterrorism mission being conducted alongside the NATO-led Resolute Support operation aimed at training and advising Afghan security forces.

Islamic State commander killed in Afghanistan: US forces

An Islamic State group suicide bomber attacked a centre for Kurdish forces in the northern Syrian city of Raqa on Monday, killing four civilians and an anti-jihadist fighter, a monitor said.

The attacker blew himself up after entering the centre run by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"A suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt blew himself up inside a YPG centre after opening fire on a security checkpoint at its entrance," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.&nbsp;

At least four civilians and a YPG fighter were killed in the attack, he added.

The YPG forms the backbone an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) battling to expel IS from its last redoubt in eastern Syria.

IS claimed responsibility for the attack they said targeted a "recruitment centre" for Kurdish forces.

"The attacker aimed at them with a machine gun then blew up his explosives vest in the middle of them," it said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Backed by the US-led coalition, the SDF has in recent weeks advanced against IS fighters in their last holdout in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border.

The jihadists are clinging on to a handful of villages in the Euphrates River Valley, including Sousa and Baghouz.

They also retain a presence in the country's vast Badia desert.

IS swept across large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" across areas under its control. But it has since lost most of that territory to various offensives.

The SDF ousted IS fighters from Raqa in 2017, more than three years after the jihadists overran the city and made it their de-facto Syrian capital.

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions more since it erupted in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.

An Islamic State group suicide bomber attacked a centre for Kurdish forces in the northern Syrian city of Raqa on Monday, killing four civilians and an anti-jihadist fighter, a monitor said.

An Islamic State group suicide bomber attacked a centre for Kurdish forces in the northern Syrian city of Raqa on Monday, killing four civilians and an anti-jihadist fighter, a monitor said. The attacker blew himself up after entering the centre run by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "A suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt blew himself up inside a YPG centre after opening fire on a security checkpoint at its entrance," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. At least four civilians and a YPG fighter were killed in the attack, he added. The YPG forms the backbone an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) battling to expel IS from its last redoubt in eastern Syria. IS claimed responsibility for the attack they said targeted a "recruitment centre" for Kurdish forces. "The attacker aimed at them with a machine gun then blew up his explosives vest in the middle of them," it said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. Backed by the US-led coalition, the SDF has in recent weeks advanced against IS fighters in their last holdout in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border. The jihadists are clinging on to a handful of villages in the Euphrates River Valley, including Sousa and Baghouz. They also retain a presence in the country's vast Badia desert. IS swept across large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" across areas under its control. But it has since lost most of that territory to various offensives. The SDF ousted IS fighters from Raqa in 2017, more than three years after the jihadists overran the city and made it their de-facto Syrian capital. Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions more since it erupted in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.

IS suicide bomber kills 5 in Syria's Raqa: Monitor

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