US-backed forces proclaimed the capture of Islamic State’s last territory in Syria on Saturday, eliminating its rule over a self-proclaimed 'caliphate', but the jihadists remain a threat from sleeper cells around the world.
Some IS fighters still hold out in Syria’s remote central desert, and in Iraqi cities they have slipped into the shadows, staging shootings or kidnappings. In a separate statement Saturday, President Donald Trump said the region had been “liberated,” but added the United States will remain vigilant. In his speech, Abdi urged Assad to recognise autonomous administration in areas controlled by the SDF and Turkey to quit areas of northern Syria it has taken over.
Those excesses drew an array of forces against it, driving it from Mosul and the Syrian city Raqqa during a year of heavy defeats in 2017 and driving it down the Euphrates to Baghouz.Over the past two months, some 60,000 people poured out, fleeing SDF bombardment and a shortage of food so severe that some were reduced to cooking grass.
Religious terrorism is the same as any other form of terrorism. It gets stuck in their heads. And they keep on fighting their war in their heads with their guns, and their bombs and their drones: