'It's a day of celebration, the nightmare is over,' said Majid Hejjo, a 23-year-old SDF fighter still wearing his fatigues and a khaki cap.
Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces gesture the"V" for victory sign as they come back from the frontline in the Islamic State group's last remaining position in the Syrian village of Baghouz .Their battle against the last jihadists holding out in the besieged Syrian village of Baghouz hasn't quite ended but Kurdish-led fighters have already started celebrating.
When they returned from the front on Tuesday, they put the lamb skewers on the grill and broke into dance as the radio of their battered truck sputtered a Kurdish tune. The Syrian Democratic Forces delivered the killer blow to the last vestige of the Islamic State group's"caliphate" this week and the end of the bruising six-month-old operation is now within touching distance.
With backing from the US-led coalition's warplanes, they forced holdout jihadists from their main encampment and into a few hectares of farmland by the Euphrates River. The prospect of an imminent victory announcement combined with early leave for the Kurds' Nowruz New Year holiday drew dozens of smiling fighters to a base on the edge of Baghouz.
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