Beirut - Syria's army declared victory over
Islamic State on Thursday, saying its capture of the jihadists'
last town in the country marked the collapse of their project in
the region.
The army and its allies are still fighting Islamic State in
desert areas near Albu Kamal, the last town the militant group
had held in Syria, near the border with Iraq, the army said.
But the capture of the town ends Islamic State's era of
territorial rule over the so-called caliphate that it proclaimed
in 2014 across Iraq and Syria and in which millions suffered
under its hardline, repressive strictures.
Yet after ferocious defensive battles in its most important
cities this year, where its fighters bled for every house and
street, its final collapse has come with lightning speed.
Instead of a battle to the death as they mounted a last
stand in the Euphrates valley towns and villages near the border
between Iraq and Syria, many fighters surrendered or fled.
In Albu Kamal, the jihadists had fought fiercely, said a
commander in the pro-Syrian government military alliance. But it
was captured the same day the assault began.
This sealed "the fall of the terrorist Daesh organisation's
project in the region", an army statement said, using an Arabic
term for Islamic State.
The fate of its last commanders is still unknown - killed
by bombardment or in battle, taken prisoner but unidentified, or
hunkered into long-prepared hideouts to plot a new insurgency.
The last appearance of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared
himself caliph and heir to Islam's historic leaders from the
great medieval mosque in Iraq's Mosul, was made in an audio
recording in September.
"Oh Soldiers of Islam in every location, increase blow after
blow, and make the media centres of the infidels, from where
they wage their intellectual wars, among the targets," he said.
Mosul fell to Iraqi forces in July after a nine-month
battle. Islamic State's Syrian capital of Raqqa fell in October
to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of
Kurdish and Arab militias, after four months of fighting.
But all the forces fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq
expect a new phase of guerrilla warfare, a tactic the militants
have already shown themselves capable of with armed operations
in both countries.
Western security chiefs have also said its loss of territory
does not mean an end to the "lone-wolf" attacks with guns,
knives or trucks ploughing into civilians that its supporters
have mounted around the world.
MIDDLE EAST CHAOS
As it did after previous setbacks, Islamic State's
leadership may now stay underground and wait for a new
opportunity to take advantage of the chaos in the Middle East.
It might not have long to wait. In Iraq, a referendum on
independence in the northern Kurdish region has already prompted
a major confrontation between its autonomous government and
Baghdad, backed by neighbouring Iran and Turkey.
In Syria, it was two rival campaigns that raced across the
country's east this year, driving back Islamic State - the
Syrian army backed by Russia, Iran and Shi'ite militias, and an
alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by the United
States.
Syrian officials and a senior advisor to Iran have indicated
the Syrian army will now stake its claim to Kurdish-held
territory. Washington has not yet said how it would respond to a
protracted military campaign against its allies.
Aggravating the region's tensions - and raising the
possibility of turmoil from which Islamic State could benefit - is a contest for power between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
It has developed a religious edge, pitting Shi'ite groups
supported by Iran against Sunni ones backed by Saudi Arabia,
infusing the region's wars with sectarian hatred.
A senior Iranian official this week spoke from Syria's
Aleppo of a "line of resistance" running from Tehran to Beirut,
an implicit boast of its region-wide influence.
In recent days the rivalry has again escalated as Riyadh
accused Lebanese Hezbollah of firing a missile from the
territory in Yemen of another Iranian ally, the Houthi movement.
Hezbollah is a critical part of the Tehran-backed alliance
helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It was Hezbollah
fighters who played the key role in ousting Islamic State from
Albu Kamal, a commander in that alliance told Reuters.
ISLAMIC STATE'S FALLEN 'STATE'
Baghdadi's declaration of a caliphate in 2014 launched a new
era in jihadist ambition. Instead of al Qaeda's strategy of
using militant attacks against the West to spur an Islamist
revolution, the new movement decided to simply establish a new
state.
It led to a surge in recruitment to the jihadist cause,
attracting thousands of young Muslims to "immigrate" to a
militant utopia slickly realised in propaganda films.
Islamic State's leadership ranks included former Iraqi
officials who well understood the running of a state. They
issued identity documents, minted coins and established a
morality police force.
Unlike previous jihadist movements that relied on donations
from sympathisers, Islamic State's territorial grip gave it
command of a real economy. It exported oil and agricultural
produce, levied taxes and traded in stolen antiquities.
On the battlefield, it adapted its tactics, using heavy
weaponry captured from its enemies during its first flush of
military success, adding tanks and artillery to its suicide
bombers and guerrilla fighters.
It imprisoned and tortured foreigners, demanding ransoms for
their release and killing those whose countries would not pay in
grotesque films posted online.
The number of those treated in this way was as nothing to
the multitude of Syrians and Iraqis Islamic State killed for
their behaviour, words, sexuality, religion, ethnicity or tribe.
Some were burned alive, others beheaded and some dropped from
the roofs of tall buildings.
Captured women were sold as brides at slave auctions. But as
Islamic State was pushed from territory in recent months, there
were pictures of women pulling off face veils and smoking
previously banned cigarettes.