Suicide bombers, rockets and snipers: how did the last days of ISIS "caliphate" unfold?

Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) fighters used everything they had at their fingertips, kamikazes, snipers and rockets, to defend the last part of the territory from what was their "caliphate" in Syria. But it was not enough.

On Saturday, the Kurdish majority militias of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the international coalition led by the United States, They declared the final victory over the jihadists after capturing the village of Al Baghouz.

To become an extended proto-state with millions of people and a vast territory at its peak of 2015, the "caliphate" had been reduced to a ghost refugee camp and a series of tunnels around a city on the Iraqi border, with garbage everywhere.

Hamid Abdel Aal, an SDF fighter, observes the camp from the top of an abandoned building and points to a land fence at the edge of the Euphrates.

"We arrived at night, we were in this barricade, the morning they attacked, they had snipers who were shooting at us all the time" said the 30-year-old man wearing the traditional green scarf badociated with Kurdish troops.

For four hours, the jihadists resisted, but then they eventually retreated to a sugarcane field near the river's edge, he counted. Behind the militia waving the SDF's yellow flag as a sign of victory.

"Eight of them exploded, others surrendered"said Abdel Aal, a Kurdish fighter from the northern province of Hbadakeh, a militia member since 2016.

He still has many traces of the campaign against the terrorist group that terrorized the world: on the right side he was shot and wounded during the Raqqa battle, capital of the caliphate in Syria. In his neck, a cut left him the explosion of a mine.

Hidden in the tunnels

Another militiaman, a slim 31-year-old man named Omar, dressed in different uniforms, recounted his experiences in these last desperate battles.

As the SDF moved forward, under the air cover of the international coalition, the jihadists attacked "sporadically", he counted.

"Kamikazes wrapped in explosives jumped tunnels, most were foreigners from Kazakhstan, France, Saudi Arabia and Iraq"he counted.

Once these same jihadists provoked terror by their attacks in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere in the world. In 2014, after a blitz that took advantage of the chaos in Syria and Iraq, They captured a huge territory, millions of people, and declared the emergence of a "caliphate" under the leadership of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. They even collected taxes and money.

Starting in 2016, the reconquest began in both countries.and since then, the "caliphate" has ceased to shrink until it only includes the unknown village of Al Baghouz, where the terrorists, who fought until the death, they started leaving the tunnels and caves to get there.

Sunday, one day after the victory, Dozens of bearded men dressed in robes walked up to captivity.

"They were hiding under the hill or in tunnels," Omar said. "It's normal, at any moment, we can see them coming out of a trench", added the father of three girls and a boy, who also fights the terrorists for a long time.

"The fighting was fiercer, more powerful, they used car bombs, heavy artillery, drones and explosive devices in homes.", describes Omar.

This power is now charred vehicles, plastic basins, gas stoves, sheets and blankets scattered in the empty trenches of Al Baghouz.

In one of these pits one can see dcorpses, a blue plastic bottle filled with explosives and a book containing the Cyrillic alphabet.

"Until the end, they had rocket launchers, they were shooting at our vehicles from far away," said Hisham Haroun, a homeless gunman who still has a gun in his case.

"They were strong, but they did not have the power of ISIS to do a few yearssaid the green-eyed fighter.

"When we started fighting ISIS, youThey had no combat experience, they used military strategies. But towards the end, it was like Tom and Jerry. How to hunt a mouse in a corner, when she can not escape the cat "he explained.

With information from AFP – Tony Gamal-Gabriel