Syria claims to liberate the last major ISIS holding.

Iraqi Shiite militias after liberating al-Qaim. Reuters. 

Syria claims to have liberated the last major stronghold from ISIS, the town of Albu Kamal. Reuters. The Syrian military claims that their Hezbollah allies have taken the town, which is on the border of Iraq. The claim is disputed by Syrian civil rights groups who claim that fighting in the area is continuing. During the battle, Hezbollah crossed into Iraq and Iraqi Shiite militias crossed into Syria. The victory comes after Iraqis liberated the town of al-Qaim across the border. ISIS still controls a few towns and villages in Syria and Iraq along the Euphrates river, but they are much weaker than they have been at any point during the war. 

My Comment:

Once again, the victories against ISIS have largely gone unnoticed. ISIS has been reduced to almost nothing and are down to a few isolated villages and towns. After al-Qaim and Albu Kamal, ISIS only has Rawa in Iraq and a few small towns in Syria and those are going to fall quickly. Their leadership is on the run and pretty soon they will be captured or killed quickly. 

But you never see anything about that in the news. Despite the fact that ISIS has been almost completely destroyed, it just doesn't get covered. Some of that is people not wanting to give Trump good coverage, but I also think that the media just doesn't like to cover good news in general. But you would think that having one the worst terror groups in world history go down would rate more headlines. 

I am rather disturbed about one thing though. The people that are fighting ISIS aren't the governments of Syria and Iraq, it is their Shiite Muslim allies. Hezbollah, a Shiite terror group was largely responsible for the liberation of al-Qaim and the Iranian backed Shiite Iraqi PMF forces liberated al-Qaim.

Why is this a problem? Well for one Hezbollah is a terrorist group. That should go without saying. But I fear that there could be some serious problems with having a Shiite terror group and even non-terrorist Shiites taking over these majority Sunni areas. 

I am worried that these militias will exact revenge on the Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria. Obviously, they have a major problem with what ISIS was doing. I don't blame them for being mad about that since ISIS was committing genocide against Shiite Muslims, along with Christians, Yazidi and other groups. But the Sunni civilians left in ISIS territory weren't responsible for that. And I fear that there might be a slaughter. 

As ISIS falls, the war against them will move to a new phase. They can no longer be considered a Caliphate but they are still a terrorist group. They will move underground and continue the war as a more traditional terrorist group. They will continue to be a major threat for both Syria and Iraq. 

I've already discussed what I think will happen with Iraq after ISIS is defeated. They moved against the Kurds, though that situation seems to have been largely resolved. Iraq seems to be on the path to at least a temporary peace. 

Not so for Syria. Even though ISIS is almost gone, Syria has other problems, the most pressing of which is al-Nusra. That's right, the other crazy terrorist group running around in Syria. They still control large swaths of country and need to be defeated as they are a former al-Qaeda affiliate. 

Syria might also move against the Kurds as well. They have skirmished in the past and I doubt Syria will allow an independent statelet within their borders. The Kurds won't be allowed to remain as independent as they are and if some kind of federal solution isn't found might result in war. And of course the Free Syrian Army still has units active as well. 

Still, the defeat of ISIS will be a great day for everyone. ISIS represented an existential threat to all free people everywhere. They are one of the evillest organizations to ever exist and I am glad that they are finally going to be brought to justice.