RAQQA, Syria — Operating from northern Syria, the United States has focused its Syria policy on the war on the Islamic State (IS) and the containment of Iran. Yet, the self-declared Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, led by the US-backed, Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Council, is only as strong as its weakest link, namely the Arab regions of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, which are still plagued by security incidents and a peripheral war with the self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate.
The battle overseen by the US-led coalition and Kurdish-dominated forces against IS in Hajin appears to be coming to a close after four months of fighting that began in September. According to the coalition, an estimated 2,000 IS fighters who remained in control of territory were cornered on a small swath of land between Hajin, in Deir ez-Zor, and the Iraqi border, an area amounting to less than 1% of the ground the group had previously held in Syria and Iraq. On Dec. 14, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that IS’ last significant toehold, the town of Hajin, had been captured by the US-backed forces. IS elements remain in control of some small villages in the area.