'We are on one side of the door and they are on the other': Western-backed forces undertake final assault on Isil Caliphate

Not so long ago, the small Syrian town of Baghuz must have been a pleasant place.

Nestled among pomegranate groves and palm trees on the meanders of the Euphrates river, its boxy concrete homes and businesses enjoyed fertile soil, broad gardens, and a moderate winter climate.

But on Sunday it was a scene of horrific destruction - its roads cratered, homes flattened, and gardens destroyed as Islamic State terrorist group’s most fanatical fighters made their last stand against Western backed forces.

The Western backed Syrian Democratic Forces have spent months methodically boxing Isil into a small patch of ground here, and announced the beginning of the operation to storm their final tiny redoubt on Friday evening.

Backed by coalition artillery, airstrikes, and C-130 gunships, they had planned to finish the operation to take the Caliphate’s last 700-metre wide circle of territory in just two days.

But the advance was immediately slowed by Isil counterattacks using suicide car bombs, IEDs, and heat-seeking missiles, while a ground assault planned for Saturday afternoon had to be postponed until sunset.

“We've been fighting off counterattacks all day. But if the day is for them, the night is for us,” said Memmo Van, a unit commander directing the night battle from a roof-top command post as the assault got underway on Saturday night.

Watching red tracer flash and artillery rounds flash across the sky, he added with a certain relish: “We really have the feeling now that we have broken their backs. They cannot retaliate."

Less than five hundred metres from Mr Van’s rooftop command post, his men were engaged in furious machine-gun duels and called in airstrikes to take out suicide car bombs driven towards their lines.

Mr Van said three SDF fighters had been killed by snipers and improvised explosive devices in the day's fighting so far.

“In some places there are metres between us, others we are on one side of a door and they are on the other. The fighting now is face-to-face,” said Mahmoud Soro, an SDF sniper.

More than once an incoming airstrike landed close enough to shake the building. It was one of few distinguishable sounds amid a universal din of British and French artillery, heavy machine-gun fire, and exploding ammunition dumps.

From somewhere in the black sky came the repetitive, hollow thud of a circling US C-130 gunship.

By Sunday afternoon, two SDF flanking columns had linked up on the bank of the Euphrates and Isil was penned into a patch of ground equivalent to a few football pitches. Plumes of smoke rose from the site of fresh airstrikes.

But despite the fearsome firepower deployed, commanders admitted that progress had slowed and victory is still not in sight.

Mustafa Bali, the SDF’s spokesman, on Sunday declined to put a timeline on the unfolding battle, saying extensive tunnel systems and booby traps used by Isil would take time to clear. He had earlier predicted the two-day plan would take a week to complete.

“Isil fighters have been using suicide vests and car bombs to slow down the SDF offensive and hide from Coalition strikes in the area of Baghuz,” said Col. Sean Ryan, a coalition spokesman.

“They still hold civilians and are lacing the tunnels with IEDs as well,” he said, referring to improvised explosive devices.

No one knows how many fighters remain in Baghuz, but Mr Bali said a rough estimate was between 1,000 and 1,500. He said 20 bodies had been recovered so far.

Although over 10,000 people left the pocket before the offensive began, a number of women, children, and possibly western hostages are believed to still be inside.

Mr Van, the frontline commander, said troops have been instructed to avoid destroying a cluster of farm buildings where intelligence suggested hostages had once been held.

But as fresh airstrikes slammed into the narrow area on Sunday, the chances of anyone surviving seemed slim.

Baghuz is the last settlement controlled by Isil’s self-proclaimed Caliphate, which at its peak ruled over eight millions people across swathes of Syria and Iraq.

The campaign has been immensely destructive. Surrounding villages retaken earlier are ghost towns, with dozens of houses reduced to rubble, huge craters severing roads, and barely a single civilian vehicle in recognisable condition.

The civilian population has vanished.

The fall of Baghuz will be a major victory for the SDF and its American, British, and French allies. But no one here is under any illusions about the group’s ability to endure as an insurgency.

Several “liberated” areas have already seen a resurgence of drive-by shootings and suicide bombings, including in Raqqa, the former capital of Isil’s caliphate, and Hajin, another town on the same stretch of the Euphrates as Baghuz.

SDF commanders have warned they will require continued Western support after the fall of Baghuz to suppress the threat.

And many of the movements most powerful leaders remain unaccounted for.

Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the infamous Isil founder who proclaimed himself Caliph in 2014, almost certainly left Baghouz several weeks ago. He is widely believed to be hiding in some remote den, possibly in Iraq’s Anbar desert.

The Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian government forces who hold the opposite bank of the Euphrates have not been involved in the offensive, but have reportedly shot several Isil members trying to escape across the river.

However, rumours abound among SDF fighters that a few “emirs” paid vast sums to bribe their way through.

Mr Soro, the SDF sniper, said despite the jihadists’ desperation they were not the formidable, tactically clever enemy he had faced in previous battles.

“I’ve lost more friends than I can count in this war. It feels good that it’s coming to an end,” he said.