The last Syrian town under the control of Islamic State fell on Friday, marking a defeat for the jihadists which will prove difficult to come back from. The flag of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the US and UK-backed fighters battling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), was erected in the central square in Hajin, eastern Deir Ezzor province. The Kurdish-dominated SDF faced one of their toughest battles in the war against Isil in Hajin, a nondescript town which had become the site of Isil’s last major stand in Syria. “Just about every Daesh we came across had a suicide belt,” said one commander involved in the battle, using the Arabic acronym for the group. “They saw it as end of days and were using every weapon they had.” Isil is thought to now only have a few hundred militants left holding out in villages around Hajin and in the small sliver of land left between Syria and Iraq. A Syrian displaced woman carries her child inside a refugee camp of al-Hol in Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria Credit: AFP Most of Isil’s remaining senior leaders had been in the town in recent months, but it is not clear whether they have been killed or managed to escape to desert land along the border before the SDF established its chokehold. All recent US intelligence also suggests Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Isil’s leader, is alive and hiding out among the group’s final vestiges. “This was always going to be a fight to the death,” Nouri Mahmoud, spokesman of the Syrian Kurdish militia known as People's Protection Units or YPG – the main component of SDF, told the Telegraph during a visit trip to northern Syria. “A lot of senior fighters and commanders had spent months preparing for this fight and were not about to give up.” The operation on Hajin was launched on September 10 and took a heavy toll, according to figures collected by the UK-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which show at least 900 jihadists and 500 SDF fighters were killed in the fighting. Isil launched a particularly deadly counterattack in early November, which saw the jihadists use the cover of a sandstorm to overrun an SDF base and capture dozens. #SDF flag in #Hajin bazaar place, center of the town. via @ciyager_rojavapic.twitter.com/OVn4ffdAMf— zana amed (@zana_med) December 13, 2018 The battle was then briefly paused after Turkey, which considers the YPG a terrorist group because of its organisational links to the insurgent Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), began shelling Kurdish troops over the border. Fresh Turkish threats could jeopardise the last stage of the SDF offensive. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, this week warned it is planning a new assault on the Kurds – this time east of the Euphrates river. A spokesman for the Turkish-backed opposition National Army said up to 15,000 Syrian rebels were ready to join Turkey's forces. The US, which has warned Turkey against such a move, will have to decide whether to back the Kurds and risk confrontation with a Nato ally, or effectively give Turkey a green light. The Kurds have warned that any attack from Turkey would distract the SDF from the battle against Isil, which could risk giving the group the oxygen to regroup in Deir Ezzor. Brett McGurk, the US anti-Isil envoy, also cautioned earlier this week that the “battle against (Isil) in the Middle Euphrates Valley” was not over yet. “It’s going to take time, but it will get done,” McGurk continued. “It’s a very difficult campaign.” The Trump administration has said it will remain in Syria for as long as it takes to defeat Isil, but it remains uncertain if the SDF has the manpower and resources to keep control of the vast territory it has captured once their ally is gone.
