Jeffrey: Fight against ISIS will go on

The US-led coalition fight against ISIS in Syria is not over, even though the group no longer controls territory, the chief US diplomat for Syria warned on Monday (March 25) and said the whereabouts of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi were unknown, Reuters reported.

US envoy for Syria, Jim Jeffrey, speaking to a briefing at the State Department, said ISIS’ loss of its last territorial stronghold in Syria over the weekend was a “great day” but the fight against the group will go on and US forces would remain in Syria in limited numbers to help.

“This is not the end of the fight against ISIS. That will go on, but it will be a different kind of fight,” Jeffrey told reporters. “ISIS has lost much of its capability to project terrorist power and to have a recruiting base in an area that it controls. So it’s a very, very important development,” he added.

Jeffrey said the focus of the coalition was on the enduring defeat of ISIS and pressing governments to take back foreign fighters captured during the conflict.

He dismissed reports that the US-coalition was considering an international tribunal to try the prisoners. “We’re not looking at that right now,” he said.

Ahead of the final assault on Baghouz at the weekend, the SDF said it had 800 foreign fighters and more than 2,000 ISIS wives and children.