BAGHOUZ, Syria — From a self-proclaimed caliphate that once spread across much of Syria and Iraq, ISIL has been knocked back to a speck of land on the countries’ shared border. The road to the base passes through a number of villages and towns from which ISIL were uprooted in recent weeks. SDF officials have said that the extremists are hiding among civilians in a tented village and using a network of caves and tunnels. As civilians trickled out of the enclave in recent weeks, the SDF and coalition officials screened those exiting. Thousands of ISIL fighters and their families have emerged from the last enclave held by the group in the past few months.

Source: National Post February 17, 2019 20:26 UTC