Joseph Votel

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A US-based Alliance of Syrian fighters, has announced that the jihadist group has lost to Islamic state (IS), The Last pocket of territory In Syria controlled by, bringing a formal end of the "Caliphate" it declared in the year 2014.

once a 88,000 sq. km controlled (34,000 sq miles) area extends from Western Syria to Eastern Iraq. It imposed its brutal rule over almost eight million people, the billions of dollars in revenue from oil, extortion, robbery and kidnapping.

Despite the decline of his physical Caliphate, IS and remains a battle-hardened and well-disciplined force whose "lasting defeat" is not backed up.

The Head of The U.S. military's Central Command, Gen Joseph Votel , said in February that it was necessary to "keep a close offensive against the IS Now largely distributed and disaggregated [], retains leaders, fighters, facilitators, resources and the profane ideology, which fuels their efforts".

Iraqi government forces recaptured The City of Mosul In July 2017, And if the pressure on The Group is not sustainable, the military officials said the U.S. Department of Defense Office of The Inspector General in January.

Such warnings seemed to convince Mr. Trump had not promised to withdraw all of the 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria , as he in an announcement in December 2018. This plan prompted the resignation of Minister of defense of Jim Mattis and alerted our allies to Defeat in the Global coalition.

, of which 200 are based on the al-Tanf Outpost, at the junction of the Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi borders.

What's next for IS? In Iraq, where the government's victory in December 2017, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, explained said in a report to the security Council in February.

"He is in a phase of transition, the adjustment and consolidation. It is the organization of cells at the provincial level, the replication of the most important management tasks," he added.

sleeper cells in Iraq have attacked civilian and government targets by extremists are active in rural areas, with remote, rugged terrain, gives you move freedom and want to attack. To the desert of Anbar and Nineveh provinces, and The Mountains over Kirkuk, Salah al-Din and Diyala province.

cells "are planning to display activities that undermine state authority and create an atmosphere of lawlessness, sabotage of social reconciliation and increase the costs for the reconstruction and counter-terrorism," said Guterres. These activities include kidnapping for ransom, targeted killings of local leaders, and attacks against state aid programs and services.

The network IS expected to In Syria , to remember that in Iraq.

in addition to the Euphrates valley, The Group has a presence in the opposition-held Northwestern Province of Idlib, in government-held areas South of the capital Damascus and in the Badiya region, a vast stretch of desert in South-Eastern Syria .

The U.S. military helped Kurdish troops drive out of North-Eastern Syria The militants have access to heavy weapons and are able to carry out bombings and assassinations throughout the country, according to the U.S. Department of defense inspector General . Their leaders keep "excellent command-and-control-ability".

the location of The Group 's overall leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is not known. But he was captured or killed, though he hide less places to.

continues to generate income through Criminal Activities . It also receives external donations and is estimated to be between $50 and $300m (£39 meters-231) in cash.

How many fighters are left? IS has suffered significant losses, but Mr Guterres said that it still controls, allegedly, between 14,000 and 18,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria , including up to 3,000 foreigners. Defeat

The U.S. special envoy for the global coalition, James Jeffrey, said in mid-March, that Washington believed there were still many of them in the sleeper cells.

The U.S. Department of defense watchdog was told by the Global coalition In July 2018, that there are between 15,000 and 17,000 IS fighters in Iraq and between 13,000 and 14,000 In Syria . The U.S. commanders, who said later that they have a lot of confidence in these figures.

was driven from Raqqa, the De Facto capital of the "Caliphate", which has started in October 2017, The SDF over 1,000 foreign fighters. Hundreds of women and More Than 2,500 children in the context of foreign fighters are Now living in camps for displaced people in SDF-controlled areas. There are also reported to be about 1,000 foreign fighters in custody in Iraq.

The US has called for the return of the SDF detainees for prosecution. But their home countries have hardened bring concerns about members back and collect the challenges, the lack of legal evidence to support the prosecution.

Up to 40,000 foreigners are estimated to fight traveled to Syria and Iraq as a whole.

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has not caught or killed, The actual number of people is still on the trip is unknown, but the flow has reduced significantly. The Global Coalition estimates that "probably 50 per month".

The Net flow of foreign fighters from Iraq and Syria is also said to be low.

Meanwhile, there are a significant number of IS-associated militants in Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, South-East Asia and West Africa , and to a lesser extent, in Somalia, Yemen, Sinai, and the Sahel Zone.

individuals inspired by The Group 's ideology also continues to be attacks elsewhere.

exploited, chaos and divisionsIS was from al-Qaeda in Iraq, which was formed by Sunni Arab militants after the US-led invasion in 2003, and was a Major Force in the rebellion.

In 2011, The Group known as the Islamic state in Iraq (Isi ) - have joined the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad In Syria , where he found a safe Harbor and easy access to weapons.

At the same time, they took advantage of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, as well as the widespread Sunni anger at the sectarian politics of the country's Shia-led government.

2013, Isi began seizing control of territory In Syria and changed its name to the Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant (Isis or Isil).

in The Following year, Isis overran large parts of Northern and Western Iraq, declared the establishment of a "Caliphate", and was known as the "Islamic state".

A subsequent advance, in areas controlled by Iraq, the Kurdish minority, and The Killing or enslavement of thousands of members, who were asked by the Yazidi religious group, to begin a U.S.-led multinational coalition air attacks on IS-positions in Iraq in August 2014. to push

A global campaignThe battle IS out of Iraq and Syria bloody, with thousands of lives lost and millions of people had to flee their homes.

In Syria have been fighting forces loyal to President Assad, the jihadist group with The Help of Russian air attacks, and the Iran-supported militias. The US-led coalition has in the meantime supported the SDF, an Alliance with the Syrian Kurds and the Arab fighters, and Some Syrian Arab rebel groups in the southern desert.

In Iraq, the local security forces were dominated and supported by the U.S.-led coalition and a para-military force, the Iran-supported militia, the Popular mobilization.

The US-led coalition, which began forces from Australia, Bahrain, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia , Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom launch air strikes against IS targets in Iraq in August 2014. The Coalition of the Syrian air attacks began a month later.

Since then, the aircraft provided the Fix as part of The Coalition for Operation Inherent, have carried out More Than 33,000 air attacks.

Russia is not part of The Coalition , but its rays began air strikes against what he strengths as "terrorists" In Syria in September 2015, the government of President Assad.

, destroy 121,000 "terrorist targets" and The Killing of More Than 5,200 members.

Major cities have been recaptured Early in the progress of the U.S.-led coalition campaign against the IS, the, capital of the Anbar province in Iraq, by the Iraqi pro-government forces in December 2015.

it has driven The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic forces alliance IS in the North-Eastern Syria , Which was In July of 2017, as a major breakthrough for The Coalition , but the 10-month battle left thousands of civilians dead, with More Than 800,000 others forced to flee their homeland.

In October 2017, the Syrian city of Raqqa, the so-called capital of the self-proclaimed "Caliphate", was again taken by the SDF with The Help of coalition air support, the completion of three years of domination.

in The Following month, the Syrian army regained full control of The Eastern city of Deir al-Zour, and Iraqi forces retook The Key Border Town of al-Qaim.

- Many thousands were killed

iraq, islamic state group, syria, syrian civil war

Source of news: bbc.com