ISIS Using Human Shields to Slow Down Final Coalition Advance

As American-backed forces battle the last remnants of Islamic terrorists in Syria, ISIS is using civilians as human shields in an attempt to slow down the advance, The Daily Caller reported Monday.

The coalition forces have cornered the terrorists in the small Syrian town of Baghouz.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted that although their forces were slowing down the assault on the last ISIS foothold due to the use of the human shields, he expected “the battle to retake the last ISIS holdout is going to be over soon."

Bali also told Kurdistan 24 the goal of SDF soldiers was to protect, free, and "avoid harming" the captives used as human shields.

Many of the ISIS fighters remaining inside the town are "foreign recruits, determined to fight to the end."

The Guardian reported, despite the tactics of ISIS, their fighters left in the town on the Euphrates River are now trapped from the east and the west by advancing SDF soldiers and by the Syrian regime and Russia on the other side of the river.

The battle to defeat ISIS's last holdout has been going on for about a month, starting in early February, The Daily Caller reported.

The final victory there would mark the end of the nearly five-year-long campaign against territories the Islamic State once controlled in both Syria and Iraq.

• ISIS Faces Final Territorial Defeat in Eastern Syria Battle
• Hundreds Leave IS-held Area in Syria as Fighting Slows Down