Date: Jan 29, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Civilians, fighters flee Daesh stronghold SOUSA, Syria/BEIRUT: Hundreds of people have fled Daesh’s (ISIS) last major stronghold in Syria - including militants who tried to sneak out among civilians - Syrian opposition activists said Monday. The Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S-backed and Kurdish-led group, have led a ground offensive under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, leaving the extremist group now boxed into a tiny last pocket of land along the Euphrates river. “Geographically speaking, there are only four square kilometers left under IS control, stretching from Baghouz to the Iraqi border,” SDF commander Heval Roni told AFP in the Baghouz area. “There are some high-ranking Daesh leaders among them ... but we don’t know who exactly,” said Heval Roni, who heads operations in the area. Despite the intensity of the offensive and the airstrikes some Daesh fighters holed up in two villages are refusing to surrender and have continued to inflict losses among the attacking forces while using civilians as human shields. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some 2,000 people, including 300 Daesh gunmen, have left the area in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor since Sunday. It said many of those who left are from Iraq. Rami Abdul-Rahman, the director of the Observatory, said a search is underway for any senior Daesh commanders who might be in the area. DeirEzzor24, an activist collective, reported that dozens of civilians had left the area.