On the 1st anniversary of its liberation, North-Press enters al-Baghouz camp

Al-Baghouz – North-Press Agency

Jindar Abdulqader

A year has passed since the end of the so-called Islamic caliphate, which was declared by the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS), which controlled large areas of Syria in 2013 and 2014. The most important of these were Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, the Aleppo countryside, Homs, and areas in the Damascus countryside, in addition to large parts of Iraq.

The camp in the town of al-Baghouz, which was ISIS’s last stronghold, is located in an agricultural area bordered to the south by the Euphrates River, to the north by the al-Baghouz Hills, to the east by al-Baghouz al-Tahtani, and to the west by al-Baghouz al-Fawqani.

The area of the camp is estimated at less than 1 km², where thousands of its fighters remained besieged by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by the U.S.-led Global Coalition from three sides, while the Euphrates River separated them from the areas of the Syrian government’s control to the south.

To coincide with the first anniversary of the liberation of the town of al-Baghouz and the elimination of the ISIS, a North-Press camera crew was able to enter the camp and observe the last remaining ISIS fighters.

Remnants of cars, clothing, utensils, light weapons, some explosives and explosive belts, as well as some ISIS graffiti such as “The Islamic State remains”, are scattered around the place as the last signs of the bloody era of ISIS.

On March 23rd of last year, the SDF announced the elimination of ISIS, which at one point had control over an area nearly the size of Britain. Thousands of its members, leaders, and their wives and children surrendered to the SDF before the end of the last deadline granted by the Global Coalition to the remaining members to surrender, at which point the latest campaign to eliminate the extremist group began.