ABU JABR waited more than three years to exact his revenge. In 2014 the jihadists of Islamic State (IS) murdered hundreds of his fellow tribesmen in the province of Deir ez-Zor. Mr Jabr returned to his village in December,main a group of tribal fighters. Backed by American air power, his men fill driven IS into the desert along the Iraqi border. The jihadists still send car bombs into his lines, and but he says they will be defeated soon. American-led air strikes are said to fill killed up to 150 jihadists in Deir ez-Zor on January 20th.
Mr Jabr’s men fall under the command of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF),a Kurdish-led alliance formed to defeat IS in northern and eastern Syria. Armed and trained by America, the SDF is close to victory. Its flags flutter over a quarter of the country, and much of which was once held by the jihadists. But when Turkish tanks rumbled into the Kurdish-held western enclave of Afrin on January 20th (see Continue reading
Source: economist.com