The Syrian village of Al-Baghuz Fawqani less than 25 miles from the Iraqi border was the location of the defeat of ISIS forces on Saturday, March 23, 2019.
The Syrian town of about 10,000 people according to a 2004 census was the last bit of territory controlled by the Islamic State of Iraqi and Syria. The terrorists officially are no longer in control of any ground on the map; ISIS no longer has a caliphate.
Rukmini Callimachi, a reporter for The New York Times, detailed the intense fighting that took place to gain the last mile and a half of ISIS-held territory.
“They detonated car bombs and hurled explosives from drones. Suicide bombers ran across the front line under cover of darkness to attack the sleeping quarters of the coalition.”
Callimachi also detailed the bitterness of ISIS as they steadily lost the last bit of territory as he recounted that ISIS wives threw clots of dirt at the reporters covering the events on the ground as they were unfolding. “In the last weeks, the militants’ families fled for their lives, their black-clad wives streaming into the desert by the tens of thousands. Some of them defiantly chanted Islamic State slogans and lobbed fistfuls of dirt at reporters.”
The spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces Mustafa Bali, with the backing of an American-led coalition, raised their flag over the town in place of the ISIS flag claiming victory.
He announced the victory on Twitter Saturday saying “On this unique day, we commemorate thousands of martyrs whose efforts made the victory possible.” He included the hashtag: #SDFDefeatedISIS.”
U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also tweeted on Saturday that the caliphate was destroyed, and that ISIS has now been entirely defeated in the ground war.
Three months after President Donald Trump said ISIS was defeated, his words have now come to fruition. The Islamic State is no more, and the caliphate crushed