Afp, Beirut

US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria yesterday announced a fresh campaign to hunt down remnants of the Islamic State group near the Iraqi border following a recent uptick in attacks.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led paramilitary alliance that has spearheaded the ground fight against IS in Syria since 2015, said that the new campaign is being carried out in coordination with the Iraqi army and the US-led coalition.

“This campaign will target ISIS’s hideouts and hotbeds,” it said, using a different acronym for the jihadist group.

It said operations will focus on the vast east Syria desert near the border with Iraq where IS has conducted a spate of attacks in recent months.

Since the loss of its last territory in Syria in March 2019, IS attacks have been restricted to the vast desert that stretches from the heavily populated Orontes valley in the west all the way to Iraqi border.

It regularly targets SDF forces and has vowed to seek revenge for the defeat of its so-called “caliphate”.