he last defenders of the caliphate grazed like sheep until there was no grass left to eat. America bombed from above. Kurdish-led fighters pursued them on the ground. And Syrian and Iraqi armies maintained a siege from their respective positions across the Euphrates river and Iraqi border. Less than five years after it had proclaimed a caliphate the size of Britain, the realm of Islamic State (is) has shrunk to less than a square mile in a riverside hamlet, Baghuz al-Fawqani, on Syria’s border with Iraq.
A few hundred fighters continue the battle, but as The Economist went to press, the American-led coalition was already erecting a podium for victory celebrations nearby. The oilfields and archaeological sites that is had looted to finance the world’s most powerful jihadist movement provide a backdrop. Its hospitals and police stations lie in ruins. Some 35,000 people, including about 3,000 fighters, have fled. Many of those who were captured are foreigners, who lacked the local connections to slink away undetected.
Yet the defeat of this caliphate will not kill the dream of one. Sunni Muslims, who once flocked to its banner, still feel economically and politically oppressed in Syria and Iraq. But Sunnis have paid a high price for the rule of IS and it will find it hard to rally them again. The tens of thousands of Muslims from around the world once drawn by its success have fled in the opposite direction. Even other jihadist groups do not want them. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda and now the leading jihadist force in Syria, has shunned an American offer to allow IS fighters to flee into their territory in Syria’s north-western province of Idlib. HTS leaders crave respectability and fear being tarnished by association with IS. Moreover the presence of IS fighters could invite more bombing by Syria’s patron, Russia.
What was that you were mewling the other day Transporter about Trump?
A few hundred fighters continue the battle, but as The Economist went to press, the American-led coalition was already erecting a podium for victory celebrations nearby. The oilfields and archaeological sites that is had looted to finance the world’s most powerful jihadist movement provide a backdrop. Its hospitals and police stations lie in ruins. Some 35,000 people, including about 3,000 fighters, have fled. Many of those who were captured are foreigners, who lacked the local connections to slink away undetected.
Yet the defeat of this caliphate will not kill the dream of one. Sunni Muslims, who once flocked to its banner, still feel economically and politically oppressed in Syria and Iraq. But Sunnis have paid a high price for the rule of IS and it will find it hard to rally them again. The tens of thousands of Muslims from around the world once drawn by its success have fled in the opposite direction. Even other jihadist groups do not want them. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda and now the leading jihadist force in Syria, has shunned an American offer to allow IS fighters to flee into their territory in Syria’s north-western province of Idlib. HTS leaders crave respectability and fear being tarnished by association with IS. Moreover the presence of IS fighters could invite more bombing by Syria’s patron, Russia.
What was that you were mewling the other day Transporter about Trump?