Syrian troops declare victory over Islamic State after capturing Albu Kamal

Syrian troops have declared victory over Islamic State in the eastern town of Albu Kamal, the terror group’s last major stronghold in the country. The Syrian military, backed by Shia fighters from Iraq, said it has reclaimed the border town of Albu Kamal from ISIS, clearing the terrorists from their last key redoubt on the Iraqi border. 

Albu Kamal had long been crucial to the ferrying of terrorists from Syria into Iraq during the American occupation, and vice versa during the war in Syria. Its loss heralds the near-complete collapse of ISIS in Syria. 

The group retreated from the eastern cities and into the surrounding desert after losing the provincial capital of the oil-rich



province of Deir ez-Zor to the Syrian army, and the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa to Kurdish paramilitaries backed by the United States.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said Forces loyal to the regime have advanced in the Albu Kamal border city and established complete control after the withdrawal of the remaining ISIS terrorists to areas under their control in the countryside.

ISIS now controls minor swaths of the desert in central and eastern Syria, a significant retreat from its position just two years ago, when it controlled half the country’s landmass along with vast stretches of the plains of Nineveh in northern Iraq and Anbar province.