BAGHOUZ, Syria—From a self-proclaimed caliphate that once spread across much of Syria and Iraq, the ISIS terrorist group has been knocked back to a speck of land on the countries’ shared border. In that tiny patch on the banks of the Euphrates River, hundreds of militants are hiding among civilians under the shadow of a small hill—encircled by forces waiting to declare the territorial defeat of the extremist group.
A spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighting the terrorists said on Sunday, Feb. 17, that the group is preventing civilians from leaving the area, closing a corridor from which nearly 40,000 residents have managed to escape since December.
