ISIS militants - many of them foreigners - are now fighting their final battle, holed up in tunnels and caves inside Baghouz, the last village they control. 9News
"Bombing, shooting, burning all the tents ... you would wake up and everything was destroyed."
Around two dozen evacuees described the group's final days to The Associated Press. They spoke of how ISIS's once powerful institutions that administered the provinces of the so-called "caliphate" withstood the pressure as fighters focused on maintaining control. All those who spoke with the AP asked to keep their identity concealed, fearing reprisals from ISIS or punishment for their connections to the group.
A driver named Khodr in one of the convoys of trucks waiting at Baghouz to ferry out a batch of evacuees last week got a first-hand look at ISIS's organization and brutality. During the operation, masked ISIS gunmen stood at alert, two at each truck, while another militant walked among the evacuees, checking names against a list, he told the AP.
SDF officials have denied they negotiated with ISIS, but a spokesman for the US-led coalition, Sean Ryan, on Wednesday confirmed negotiations were taking place, through which the SDF is "diligently" trying to find out information regarding any hostages held by IS.Nearly every day, hundreds of men and women have straggled out of Baghouz, many visibly traumatized. Some were on crutches, in ambulances or on wheelchairs. Babies and children cried for food.
Um Rayyan, 25, said she remains a supporter but said she was disheartened by the group's increasing corruption. Aliya, another 27-year old Syrian from Aleppo, said her husband earned a salary of less than $100 a month teaching in mosques, but as conditions worsened, the militants wanted him to work for free "because they had little to offer." When her husband was killed last month, she couldn't join the welfare system that guaranteed widows a stipend. Instead she relied on food handouts and reached out to "sisters" for assistance.
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