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ISIS '100 percent' wiped out after five-year reign of terror and bloodshed, US declares
ISIS has been finally been "100 per cent" defeated after a brutal five year reign of terror that saw the jihadi death cult conquer huge swathes of territory.
Victory was officially declared today after US-backed Syrian forces checked the final enclave held by the caliphate’s remaining fighters for booby traps and hidden snipers.
The US Defense Department says the militant group Islamic State no longer holds any territory in Syria, a White House spokeswoman said on Friday.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan briefed President Donald Trump as he was travelling to Florida on Air Force One, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
The White House added all Islamic State held territory in Syria has been "100 per cent” eliminated.
The bloodthirsty Islamists dug a network of tunnels in the village of Baghouz, eastern Syrian, where hundreds of fighters staged their last stand.
Thousands of civilians have been streaming out of Baghouz, creating a desperate humanitarian situation for the mainly women and children living in camp.
The International Rescue Committee said another 2,000 women and children had arrived late on Wednesday at the al-Hol camp in northeastern .
The al-Hol camp is now holding more than 72,000 people, including more than 40,000 children, IRC said.
The total number of deaths on the way to it or shortly after arriving now stood at 138, the overwhelming number of them babies and infants.
US-backed forces have seized hundreds of wounded ISIS fighters after the killer cult's last death camp in Syria collapsed under a non-stop barrage of bullets and bombs.
Among those killed include the ISIS fanatics behind the Paris terror attacks.
Speaking yesterday, the US President shared a map showing how the so-called caliphate's territory has been reduced to a tiny spot – which he said "will be gone by tonight".
Hours earlier, the terror group's media wing released images of its hardened warriors involved in a bloody gun battle with the Syrian Democratic Forces in the enclave.
However, the SDF has now claimed the final wounded militants were being transported from the fallen stronghold at Baghouz to be detained away from the frontline.
A group of suspects involved in a January bombing that killed four Americans in northern Syria were among militants captured by the Kurdish-led forces.
However, the taking of the encampment, though a massive milestone, is not the final defeat of ISIS in the region, said Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the SDF.
"This is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight," Bali said in a Twitter post.
He said hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment.
ISIS Caliphate two years ago in red vs. ISIS Caliphate TODAY. (Was even worse in November 2016 before I took office). pic.twitter.com/MUgfex4rCj
HIDDEN CAVES
The ISIS-held village of Baghouz was the last pocket of territory in Syria controlled by the extremist group, which once held a vast area of Syria and Iraq, calling it an Islamic "caliphate."
Its fall marked the end of the devastating four-year campaign to end ISIS's hold on any kind of territory, although it maintains scattered presence and sleeper cells in both countries.
The battle for Baghouz including the encampment, a collection of tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels has dragged on for weeks.
The sheer number of people who have emerged, nearly 30,000 since early January according to Kurdish officials, has taken the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces by surprise.
Most have been women and children whose existence in a labyrinth of underground caves and tunnels was unknown to the SDF.
The World Health Organisation said on 106 people, mainly infants, have died since December on the journey from Baghouz to the detention camp at al-Hol, which takes at least six hours.
Many evacuees, particularly foreigners, still express obdurate support for ISIS, posing difficult security, legal and moral questions for their countries of origin.
Those issues were underscored on Friday with the death of the newborn son of Shamima Begum, a British woman who left London to join Islamic State when she was a schoolgirl.
The UK government stripped her of her citizenship on security grounds last month.
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