ISIS WILL be defeated in Syria within a month, says military commander - five weeks after Trump said the terror group had been eliminated in the country

  • Syrian Democratic Forces chief says ISIS will be defeated in Syria within a month
  • Mazloum Kobani said remaining pocket of jihadists are surrounded in one area
  • Comes five weeks after Trump tweeted: 'We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency' 

By AFP and JULIAN ROBINSON FOR MAILONLINE

Published: | Updated:

A top military commander has said ISIS will be defeated in Syria within a month - five weeks after Donald Trump said the terror group had been eliminated in the country.

Mazloum Kobani, chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the last remaining jihadists will soon be flushed out and military operations against the extremists wrapped up.

It comes five weeks after the US President tweeted: 'We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.' 

There was widespread concern after his shock announcement on December 19 that he was withdrawing all 2,000 American troops from the conflict-wracked Middle Eastern country.

Mazloum Kobani (pictured), chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, has said ISIS will be defeated in Syria within a month - five weeks after Donald Trump said the terror group had been eliminated in the country 

Mazloum Kobani (pictured), chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, has said ISIS will be defeated in Syria within a month - five weeks after Donald Trump said the terror group had been eliminated in the country 

In December, US President Donald Trump tweeted: 'We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency'

In December, US President Donald Trump tweeted: 'We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency'

 There was widespread concern after the shock announcement on December 19 that Trump  was withdrawing all 2,000 American troops from the conflict-wracked Middle Eastern country

 There was widespread concern after the shock announcement on December 19 that Trump  was withdrawing all 2,000 American troops from the conflict-wracked Middle Eastern country

But Kobani told AFP: 'The operation of our forces against IS in its last pocket has reached its end and IS fighters are now surrounded in one area.'

With backing from the US-led coalition, the SDF are in the last phase of an operation started on September 10 to defeat the jihadists in the Euphrates Valley in eastern Syria.

'We need a month to eliminate IS remnants still in the area,' said Kobani, who spoke to AFP on Thursday near the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh.

A few hundred ISIS fighters are defending a handful of hamlets near the Iraqi border, the last rump of a 'caliphate' which the jihadist organisation proclaimed in 2014 and once covered territory the size of Britain.

'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.

A U.S. soldier, left, sits on an armoured vehicle behind a sand barrier at a position near the front line in Manbij, north Syria in April last year

A U.S. soldier, left, sits on an armoured vehicle behind a sand barrier at a position near the front line in Manbij, north Syria in April last year

Intense fighting in the area known as 'the Hajin pocket' has left hundreds of fighters dead on both sides, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

ISIS lost the town of Hajin late last year and the subsequent collapse of its defences saw the Kurdish-led SDF conquer one village after another.

Kobani said their battle had been complicated by the jihadist group's shifting strategy after the fall of their de-facto Syrian capital of Raqqa in 2017.

New tactics include 'sleeper cells everywhere, secretly recruiting people again, and carrying out suicide operations, bombings, and assassinations', he said.

'We expect there will be an increase in the intensity of IS 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.

Colonel Sean Ryan, spokesman for the U.S.-coalition fighting ISIS, said earlier this month that the U.S. had started 'the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria.' 

The UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights  said a convoy of about ten armored vehicles, in addition to some trucks, pulled out from Syria's northeastern town of Rmeilan into Iraq. 

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