BAGHOUZ, Syria — As final defeat looms, militants of the Islamic State group have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath. Keeping institutions functioning in their last shred of…
BAGHOUZ, Syria — As final defeat looms, militants of the Islamic State group have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath. Keeping institutions functioning in their last shred of territory, they are continuing benefits like food and money to supporters while their religious police and fighters still impose their rule of fear and brutality.
The evacuees, most of them relatives of IS members, include shattered families that lost loved ones and wounded, exhausted and hungry men, women and children — but some remain die-hard believers, angry and broken, and potential seeds for an already burgeoning insurgency in a country whose social fabric is in shreds.
Suddenly the orderly scene was disrupted. A gunman lashed out at a woman, striking her with what appeared to be a taser. Khodr couldn’t see why — perhaps she had been confused and hesitated to board, perhaps she argued. Crying and panicking, she fell to the ground and plunged her hands in the sand, trying to ease the pain. When she didn’t get up, the gunman fired his automatic weapon into the ground near her, until she stood and boarding resumed.
Now outside Baghouz, they lined up for screening by IS’s enemy, the SDF, in a reception area in the desert, stirring up dust that coated their clothes. Men lined up separately to be searched and screened by SDF fighters who collected their biometric data.
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