NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria – Veiled in black and toting her three children, Um Nuh fled the last ISIS holdout in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province, sent to safety to raise a new generation loyal to the vision of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi while her husband stayed behind to fight to the death. “The Islamic State is in our heart. Even if they kill all of us, we love it,” she said in a dusty field strewn with discarded plastic bottles and packaging. She is among thousands of civilians, ISIS women and children, and injured jihadists who have evacuated the tent village on the banks of the Euphrates River where the last vestiges remain of the so-called caliphate that once ruled millions on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border. The women are adamant this is not the end of the story. They pledge to birth more generations to continue the path of al-Baghdadi. “Allah the Almighty ordered us to leave to prevent the death of our children before our eyes. We left so that Allah can give us another generation to become mujahidin [jihadist]. If our men have died, our women have not,” said another black-clad woman who declined to give her name. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have proceeded cautiously out of concern for civilians, including Yezidis who were captured when ISIS swept across northern Iraq in 2014. “We cannot say when we will be done because there are civilians trapped inside being used as human shields,” said SDF spokesperson Adnan Afrin. Some 57,000 people have fled Baghouz and the Euphrates River valley area since December, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Those remaining have two options, said Afrin: “surrender or fight.” The evacuees are brought by truck to the over-crowded Al Hol camp. Among the thousands of Syrians and Iraqis are hundreds of foreigners whose governments are reluctant to repatriate. Western governments are worried about the security risk and the daunting task of prosecuting the alleged terrorists for crimes committed in Iraq and Syria. The Kurdish administration has refused to prosecute foreigners and warns they cannot hold the detainees forever.
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