Military operations against ISIS group in Syria are wrapping up and the last pocket of the jihadists’ “caliphate” will be flushed out within a month, a top commander said. “The operation of our forces against ISIS in its last pocket has reached its end and ISIS fighters are now surrounded in one area,” Mazloum Kobani, the chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told AFP. “I believe that during the next month we will officially announce the end of the military presence on the ground of the so-called caliphate,” Kobani said. “We expect there will be an increase in the intensity of ISIS operations against our forces after the end of their military presence,” Kobani said. ISIS has retained a presence in Syria’s vast Badia desert and has claimed a series of attacks in SDF-held territory.

Source: Egypt Independent January 25, 2019 09:11 UTC