Syrian Kurdish-led fighters take Hajin, last town held by IS

BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led fighters captured the last town held by the Islamic State group on Friday, after three months of ferocious battles in the militants' single remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists and Kurdish officials said. The fall of Hajin marks an end to the extremist group's hold over any significant urban area, which in three years shrunk from large swaths of Iraq and Syria the militants once held to this small enclave near the two countries' shared borders. The capture of Hajin does not, however, mark the end of the group, which still holds some villages nearby and has a scattered presence and sleeper cells in both countries. Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting to take the town of Hajin and nearby villages in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour since Sept. 10. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Syrian Democratic Forces took Hajin early on Friday after fierce fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. It said some ISIL fighters withdrew to nearby villages and that fighting is still ongoing in fields outside Hajin as SDF fighters chase out the extremists. Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed that the town had been recaptured, adding that some militant fighters were still holed up in small pockets on the edge of Hajin. The area was home to some 15,000 people, including 2,000 IS gunmen who have been fighting back with counteroffensives and suicide attacks. As the offensive by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces intensified over the past days under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, Islamic State fighters withdrew south to areas east of the Euphrates river and west of Syrian Democratic Forces positions along the border with Iraq.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces seize control of Hajin, the last major town held by ISIL in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.