Daesh retake nearly half of Bukamal from Syrian regime forces

The Syrian regime had declared victory over Daesh on Thursday, saying it had captured the militants' last urban stronghold in the country.

Syrian regime forces had recaptured the town, which lies on the border with Iraq in the eastern Deir Ezzor province on Thursday.
AFP

Syrian regime forces had recaptured the town, which lies on the border with Iraq in the eastern Deir Ezzor province on Thursday.

Daesh militants have retaken nearly half of Bukamal in eastern Syria in a counter-attack on what had been the last significant town under their full control, a monitor said Friday.

"IS [Daesh] started counter-attacking on Thursday night and retook more than 40 percent of the town of Bukamal," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syrian regime forces and allied fighters had recaptured the town, which lies on the border with Iraq in the eastern Deir Ezzor province, from the militants on Thursday.

Bukamal lies at the heart of what used to be a sprawling territory covering huge swathes of Iraq and Syria.

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"They went back in and retook several neighbourhoods in the north, northeast and northwest," Abdel Rahman said. "IS [Daesh] is trying to defend its last bastion."

The terror organisation has seen its territory shrink to a small rump and lost major cities such as Mosul, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in the space of a few weeks.

Bukamal was the last town of note it controlled and losing it would cap the group's reversion to an underground guerrilla organisation with no urban base.

According to Syrian regime TV, the regime and auxiliary forces had taken full control of it by Thursday.

The Observatory said most of the fighting was done by the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah and elite forces from its backer Tehran, as well as militia groups from Iraq.

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