AL-OMAR OIL FIELD BASE, Syria, Feb 17 (NNN- AGENCIES) – The U.S.-backed Syrian militia fighting Daesh (ISIS) in its last toehold in Syria says there are over 1,000 civilians trapped in the tiny area and that the militant group is preventing them from leaving.
Mustafa Bali, a spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, tells The Associated Press Sunday that Daesh has closed all the roads in and out.
SDF officials have said the extremists are hiding among civilians in a tented village and using a network of caves and tunnels. Daesh, which once ruled a proto-state in large parts of Syria and Iraq, is clinging to an area less than a square kilometer in the village of Baghouz, in eastern Syria.
The extremists may include high-level commanders, and could be holding hostages.
