ISIS Nearing Defeat

Braden Rice, Staff Writer

After five years of terror, ISIS is almost defeated. The year 2017 has been a turning point for the Assad and American Coalitions, with the terrorist group losing more territory and power in the Middle East than all previous years combined.

Earlier this year, ISIS lost Mosul, its headquarters in Iraq, where the terrorist group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared his Islamic Caliphate in 2014. In Syria, Raqqa, the group’s international capital, has been surrounded and under siege by the American backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for months and is expected to fall soon.

With Trump and Putin securing a ceasefire in the western part of the country, the Syrian Army has been able to fight the militant group much easier. Earlier this year, the Assad Coalition took back the city of Palmyra, in central Syria. Right now they’re sieging ISIS’s last stronghold in the middle east in eastern Syria, the city of Deir Ez-zor.  This is where Pro-Government forces and 93,000 civilians held off a five year siege by ISIS, while holding onto half the city. The Syrian Army was finally able to relieve the siege with the assistance of Russian airstrikes last week.

Re-taking the city is happening faster than predicted, because the city being attacked on its eastern front by the SDF. This cuts off any reinforcements the militants there could hope to receive. Due to the group losing much of its territory and wealth, the threat of it conducting terror attacks is vastly decreasing. The war on terror might finally end soon.

Reported from:

http://isis.liveuamap.com/

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/islamic-state

https://www.cbsnews.com/isis/