The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) “started to move on to the last village remaining under jihadists’ control in [northern] Syria,” said SDF press officer Mustafa Bali on Saturday evening.
The “village of Baghouz, which is the only remaining ISIS pocket, will be cleared soon,” he declared.
The decision to begin the final stage of the military campaign was made only after more than 20,000 civilians had evacuated the battleground, he added.
The night before, Bali had told Reuters they had opened a safe corridor and were receiving civilians every day.
He denied reports that they were in negotiations with ISIS to take control of Baghouz while giving militants passage to another location.
There is no intention to enter negotiations, he told Reuters.
Earlier on Saturday, the Syriac Military Council, which fights under the SDF umbrella, announced they had sent an assault group for the “final operation/attack to defeat ISIS in Baghouz.”
The Baghouz area on the shores of the Euphrates River in eastern Deir ez-Zor province, near the border with Iraq, is the last piece of significant territory held by the jihadists who had once controlled swathes of land across Iraq and Syria. There are an estimated 1,000 fighters holed up in Baghouz.
