Some jihadists still hide in caves in their last refuge in Syria
Several fighters of the Islamic State group (IS) still hide in the network of caves and tunnels in Al Baguz, the last refuge of the jihadists in Syria, according to the Kurdish militias that took the town on March 23rd.
The spokesman of the Democratic Syrian Forces (FSD), Mustafa Bali, affirmed on Twitter that "there are still some terrorists hidden in the cave system around the Al Baguz mountain", although he did not specify their number.
The FSD, an alliance of militias led by Kurds that has the support of the international coalition, are combing Al Baguz and its surroundings, dismantling mines and traps with explosives and searching for IS cells and "other remnants" of the terrorist group, Bali added. .
The militias are "collecting data" on people suspected of belonging to IS, who have been arrested in the east of the province of Deir al Zur, a commander of the FSD, Adnan Afrin, told Efe.
Some of the suspects, arrested before or after the release of Al Baguz, "admitted that they hid quantities of weapons in houses or buried them in the ground," Afrin said.
The FSDs have found weapons stores in the liberated areas, thanks to the investigations and confessions of some detainees, Afrin added.
On March 23, the FSD announced the end of the offensive against the IS after the conquest of Al Baguz, the last refuge of the IS in Syria, which led to the end of the territorial domain of the terrorist group.
The FSDs have expelled the IS from the Syrian provinces east of the Euphrates River, a broad territory that includes Al Raqa, the former de facto capital of the "caliphate" declared by the jihadist group in 2014.
The terrorist group led by Abu Bakr al Bagdadi came to control a vast territory from northern Syria to the vicinity of Baghdad.
