Syria’s Baghouz bares scars of battle 1 year after ISIS defeat

BAGHOUZ, Syria—A year after the last black flag of the Islamic State group (ISIS) was lowered in the Syrian village of Baghouz, local farmer Hamad al-Ibrahim is trying to restore his scorched land.  

There is little to mark the grim occasion, just a screeching metal frame holding the town’s name at the entrance of a road leading into fields littered with twisted metal that appears as though it fell from space onto an eerie lunar terrain.

At the foot of a craggy hill, the 75-year-old Ibrahim paces, picking up the litter left on his property: discarded explosives belts, a gas mask, tattered military vests, and a crumpled book on shariah law, covered in dust.

"We are fixing the wreckage so we can sow this land with wheat for bread," says Ibrahim, who heads an extended family of 75. "We want to revive this plot and plant crops we can eat." 

Before he can plant seeds in the earth, he must first clear away the remnants where ISIS fighters put up their last stand and where the US-led coalition declared the ISIS proto-state defeated in March 2019 after a blistering months-long assault.

Nearby, an empty bullet casing rusts and the mangled remains of charred vehicles dot the landscape. Still all around him in this small and remote village near the Iraqi border, the militants no longer have a caliphate — instead, they have gone underground. 

Ibrahim returned to Baghouz a few months ago, having fled to other parts of Deir ez-Zor province and later to the northern province of Raqqa as the fight against ISIS raged.

In a battered encampment on the edge of the village, once crammed with thousands of ISIS jihadists and their relatives, Ibrahim's family now works to clean up the detritus of war.

They have found landmines planted where Ibrahim hopes his wheat crops will grow and, on some occasions, weapons buried beneath the ground.

"When we came back and saw what had happened to our land, my son was going to go mad. I was scared he was going to have a stroke," Ibrahim says.

"This wreckage feels like a wound in my body."



The churned-up wasteland Ibrahim must now tend to is all that remains of the so-called caliphate that the extremist group declared in 2014 across large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq.

At its height, the group inflicted its brutal interpretation of Islam on some seven million people and launched deadly attacks against the West.

While the so-called caliphate is now dead, fears of attacks by ISIS remnants are still very much alive among residents and Kurdish-led security forces. 

At the entrance to Baghouz, fighters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) verify identity papers and conduct foot patrols at strategic points.

A spokesman for the Deir ez-Zor Military Council, a body affiliated with the SDF, says Baghouz is secure, but IS cells "continue to operate in nearby villages such as al-Shaafa and al-Sousa." 

Despite the defeat in Baghouz, ISIS has maintained a presence in SDF-held areas, where it claims near-daily attacks.

The SDF and its coalition allies have since last year been on the hunt for such jihadist remnants.  

In October, a US raid in northern Syria killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before the group announced his successor as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi. 

But Baghdadi's killing has only spurred more sleeper cells into action, says the military council spokesman, who asked to be identified as Haroun.  

"ISIS is seeking revenge," he sighs, concerned. 



Reeling from missile strikes that have pounded its military installations in Iraq following an adventurous standoff with Iran that followed the surprise drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, American troops are pulling back from their positions in the region.

"Nearly one year after the Battle of Baghouz, the defeat of ISIS's physical territory, our security partners in Iraq and Syria apply constant pressure on ISIS remnants to prevent resurgence," read a coalition statement published Friday, announcing the repositioning of troops.

It added the the US would continue supporting Iraqi troops in working toward a "permanent defeat" of ISIS, albeit from a safer distance.

"The coalition understands that ISIS remains a threat," US Colonel Myles B. Caggins III told Rudaw English in a recent interview.

"ISIS is down but not out."

The US withdrawal was planned months in advance, he said. "Transfer of our base at al-Qaim to the Iraqi security forces happened for one reason, because the Iraqi security forces are successful in the ongoing fight against ISIS," he told Rudaw English.



Despite the looming threat of attacks, half of Baghouz's residents have returned in recent months, bringing a semblance of normal life with them. 

In the main market, women clad from head to toe in black stroll along the street, ISIS insignia still painted on surrounding walls. 

Vendors sell fruit and vegetables from small roadside carts beneath listing balconies.

Many war-battered apartment blocks are abandoned, while those inhabited lack running water and electricity.

Amid the devastation, an outbreak of leishmaniasis – a skin disease caused by a microscopic parasite spread by sandflies – has gripped the village.

The illness is endemic in Syria but has become more prevalent during the nine-year civil war, especially in areas rocked in recent years by clashes to expel ISIS jihadists.

Baking flatbread on a rudimentary stove, Faten al-Hassan says the outbreak of the disfiguring disease in Baghouz is significant.

"All my kids have leishmaniasis, and it's not just them. Most residents suffer from this illness too," the 37-year-old says.

But at least "we are living inside our home, and for now, this is enough," she adds.

Nearby, Hashem Raafat, 20, is not so lucky.

Living in a tent near his bombed-out home, he says: "Public services are non-existent, houses are destroyed, and many have died because of landmines while we don't have a single hospital."

With reporting by Delil Souleiman, AFP

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