Dance and lamb on the grill to celebrate the imminent victory against ISIS – 20/03/2019

The fighters improvise a dabke to the rhythm of music coming out of a truck's radio while the skewers of lamb are grilled. In eastern Syria, anti-jihadist forces celebrate despite the fact that the announcement of the victory against ISIS is expected.

In the village of Baghouz, in a position of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting the Islamic State, a hundred fighters come back from the front. They're happy.

The battle is coming to an end and the fighters will benefit from a permit of about ten days. before being badigned to positions elsewhere in Syria.

In front of an elegant house transformed into a military post, the commander takes part in the celebrations. A man sings a Kurdish song in his glory, under the applause, applause and hissing of joy of his comrades.

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There are bags everywhere. The fighters move in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, for a dabke, a traditional Levantine dance.

On the first floor, a fighter cuts lamb meat on skewers and roasts it.

"It's a holiday, the nightmare is over," says fighter Majid Hejjo, 23, dark-skinned, uniformed and wearing a cap. East of Hbadake province (north-east). Normally, it is located in Raqa (north), the ancient capital of the Islamic State in Syria.

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Since December, they usually send it to the East to help in the last battle against ISIS. cornered in a small territory thanks to the SDS offensive.

The young man is eager to return home to see his wife pregnant with their first child.

A license was not expected before five days, he says. Like him, a hundred fighters will be able to leave.

"Our joy is double, we will go home to see our family, and we defeated ISIS"Excites the young man who, just a few days ago, launched RPG rockets against the jihadists.

Next to him, his half-brother Mohanad, 21, checks his things for the last time in a green suitcase with wheels. When he came to Baghouz, he brought the yellow cup in which he drinks tea.

With the help of an international coalition led by Washington, the SDS announced Tuesday that they had taken the jihadist camp where the last fighters were cut off of the radical organization.

This Wednesday, there were still intermittent battles between the SDS and the last jihadists, on a piece of land on the edge of the Euphrates. Nothing to do with the vast territory conquered in 2014 in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

The Turkish Arab forces believe that victory is at hand.

Mohamed Hallushe, 24, leaves with his backpack. He will also travel to Hasake to see his family, enjoying a 10-day license, and then return to his original position: Raqqa.

"I have been here for 11 days. The battle is over, the war is over"said the young man, with a beard and a gray cap.

He has not seen his people for a month. "These holidays do not look like other holidays, this time we go home from Baghouz, the last ISIS redoubt"he says.

He is eager to finish the interview. He hands the kalashnikov to a comrade and joins the dabke.

With a black hood and a Kalashnikov on the shoulder, Deliar Kobane He will return to Raqqa to see his wife and three children.

"Today, they told us that we will return to our regions," said the 30-year-old. "There is no more terrorism." "The jihadists attacked us with all kinds of weapons. We fought them, we left none. "

AFP Agency.

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