After string of defeats, IS faces retreat to the desert
Facing a string of defeats in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State group is being forced to retreat to the desert from which it emerged three years ago. By the end of 2014, the group born in Iraq held one third of the oil-rich country and large swathes of territory in neighbouring Syria. But today […]Sarah Benhaida and Maya Gebeily write for AFP:
Facing a string of defeats in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State group is being forced to retreat to the desert from which it emerged three years ago.
By the end of 2014, the group born in Iraq held one third of the oil-rich country and large swathes of territory in neighbouring Syria.
But today it has lost 90 percent of its territory in Iraq, including the city of Mosul, while in Syria a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters has captured over 60 percent of its one-time bastion of Raqa.
