Surrendering families of ISIS militants in the village of Baghouz, Syria.PHOTO: REUTERS
Reuters: 'We don't see the enemy' concealed jihadists slow IS defeat
DEIR AL-ZOR PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) - The young Syrian man crossing out of Islamic State’s last enclave in eastern Syria brought confirmation that the fight was still not over despite days of ferocious bombardment by U.S.-backed forces.
“There are people coming out and others not coming out,” said the bearded man wearing a robe and head scarf, one of hundreds of people who left the enclave at Baghouz on Thursday to surrender to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Asked if there were many people still inside, he said “yes” in the footage obtained by Reuters from the Kurdish TV station Ronahi. “I was injured in my back,” said the man, originally from the nearby city of Deir al-Zor.
On Friday suicide attackers struck a group of people leaving Baghouz and surrendering, the SDF said, the first such blasts to target any of the thousands of people abandoning the enclave.
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Update: Push to defeat ISIS in Syria slowed by concern for hostages (CTV News/AP)
WNU Editor: The last remaining ISIS fighters are now targeting their own .... Suicide attackers strike people quitting ISIS' last Syria zone (Straits Times/Reuters). This is going to take some time to finish. The Syrian-led Kurdish forces are now playing the waiting game, letting the lack of food and water in this ISIS enclave work for them. Because the end is near, I can understand why many coalition soldiers are reluctant to risk their life when the end is so near.
1 comment:
An army in being is at times worth more than one that will fight a battle that campaign season.
It is a hard concept to grasp at first. By refusing battle an army for an empire, kingdom or nation limits potential damage to their country. While an invade has a 1/3rd, 2/3 rds or better chance to win, they are not sure, so while they might pillage and maraud they cannot do so freely. If they win a battle they can pillage to their hearts content, but with an enemy army in the field shadowing them, they have to curtail their activities. You can read about this in some histories of Rome in the 3rd or 4th centuries.
You can bleed a country white despite the fact that the kill ratio is in their favor. It leaves to few males or too few people period to pick up the pieces and repair the economy or meet the next threat.
One reason given for the fall of the Assyrian Empire is not any particular battle won or lost, but manpower exhaustion over successive campaigns.
You might win a war but lose some many brave men that the gene pool shifts in a bad direction and have a lily livered, codsucker like Der Schlickmeister in charge.
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