A United States-backed Syrian militia on Tuesday announced it had captured a camp from the Islamic State terror group in eastern Syria, leaving the organization's remaining territory in the war-torn country further weakened.

Last week, the Syrian Democratic Forces, an ethnically-mixed militia led by Kurds, resumed their final offensive to liberate the village of Baghuz after evacuating thousands of civilians. </s> The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces say they have captured a camp from Islamic State in eastern Syria, as the extremist group's sliver of remaining territory in the war-ravaged country wanes further.

"The SDF is in control of Daesh encampment area in Baghuz," SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali wrote on Twitter.

"This is not a victory announcement but a significant progress in the fight against Daesh," he wrote, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Late on Tuesday around 12 Islamic State suicide bombers blew themselves up after they refused to surrender, SDF commander Adnan Afrin said.

He added that several Islamic State fighters also surrendered to SDF fighters who were combing the area they took earlier.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that around 1,000 jihadists handed themselves over the SDF, some of them sick and wounded.

The SDF said the Islamic State fighters are now confined to a tiny pocket on the edges of the Euphrates river and are holding their families as human shields.

Last week, the SDF, a Kurdish-led rebel group, resumed a campaign supported by the US-led air coalition with the aim of capturing the village of Baghuz after evacuating thousands of civilians.

The Kurdish spokesman stressed in comments to dpa that battles are "fierce ... on some fronts there are tit-for-tat attacks, on other fronts there are some advances."

Baghuz, located on the Euphrates River in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq, is the last significant territory still in the hands of Islamic State, which for years controlled swathes of both countries.

Kurdish sources have said that the presence of hundreds of mines in the area is slowing their advances in the village. </s> Kurdish-led forces celebrate the end of the Islamic State group's nearly five-year-long "caliphate" after defeating the last jihadists holed up in eastern Syria.

The Syrian Democratic Forces said they had taken full control of Baghuz, a small village on the Euphrates. </s> BAGHOUZ, Syria — U.S.-backed Syrian forces on Tuesday seized control of an encampment held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, after hundreds of militants surrendered overnight, a spokesman said, signaling the group’s collapse after months of stiff resistance. A group of suspects involved in a January bombing that killed four Americans in northern Syria were among militants captured by the Kurdish-led forces.

The taking of the IS camp was a major advance but not the final defeat of the group in Baghouz, the last village held by the extremists where they have been holding out for weeks under siege, according to Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. Still, fighters from the force were starting to celebrate anyway.

“I’m happy it’s over. Now I know my people are safe,” said a fighter who identified himself as Walid Raqqawi who fought in the camp Monday night. He said he is returning to his hometown of Raqqa to rest. Comrades from his unit sang and danced in celebration at an outpost in Baghouz, all saying they were looking forward to going home.

An unknown number of IS militants still clung to a tiny sliver of land trapped between the Euphrates River and the encampment now held by the SDF, officials in the force said.

The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their notorious propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. On Monday, IS issued a video showing its militants furiously defending the encampment, a junkyard of wrecked cards, motorcycles and tents. In the footage, they shoot nonstop with AK-47s and M-16s from behind trucks, vehicles and sand berms.

A group of children could be seen at one point amid the fighting.

“My Muslim brothers everywhere, we did our best, the rest is up to God,” a fighter says as black smoke rises from behind him.

The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State group’s self-declared territorial “caliphate,” which at its height stretched across much of Syria and Iraq. For the past four years, U.S.-led forces have waged a destructive campaign to tear down the “caliphate.” But even after Baghouz’s fall, IS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten a continuing insurgency.

The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks — and the encampment has proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels.

The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of IS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out, exhausted, hungry and often wounded. The sheer number who emerged — nearly 30,000 since early January according to Kurdish officials — took the Kurdish-led SDF by surprise.

In the last two weeks, many IS militants appeared to be among those evacuating. But SDF commanders have stopped speculating when the battle may finally be over. Commanders say they don’t know how many more may still be left, hiding in tunnels beneath the war-scarred village.

In the seizure Tuesday of the encampment, hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment, Bali, the SDF spokesman, said in a Twitter post. Still, he cautioned, “this is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight.”

There were conflicting reports from SDF commanders on the ground about the extent of the IS surrender.

Commander Rustam Hasake told The Associated Press that SDF forces advanced on four fronts Monday night and were inside the camp when the last IS fighters surrendered at dawn. He said the last fighters were pushed out of the camp and were now in an open patch of land by the Euphrates River and were being processed and detained.

Another commander, however, said some IS militants continue to hold a tiny area in an open patch of land in the village, outside the encampment.

AP journalists in Baghouz reported sporadic gunfire echoing in Baghouz and jets circling overhead. At a command post in Baghouz, a Humvee pulled up and unloaded weapons captured from IS on Tuesday, including sniper and hunting rifles, pump action shot guns and grenades and ammunition.

Five trucks hauling 10 trailers full of people were seen coming out of Baghouz. A child could be heard wailing from inside one of them. At least 100 people, nearly all of them children, have died in the truck trips from Baghouz on the way to a camp in northern Syria, or soon after reaching it, according to the International Rescue Committee — a sign of how miserable conditions were inside Baghouz during the siege as supplies ran out.

Bali, in a separate Twitter post Tuesday, said the SDF captured a group of suspects involved in a January suicide bombing that killed four Americans in the northern town of Manbij. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or whether they were among the most recent militants to surrender.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast outside a popular restaurant in Manbij, which killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. service members and two American civilians. It was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.

As they make their final stand, the IS militants have issued a string of statements this month claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on the SDF.

In an audio posted online Monday, the IS spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajer, issued his first message in six months, calling for revenge attacks by Muslims in Western countries in retaliation for the shooting attack on two New Zealand mosques that killed 50 people.

He also ridiculed U.S. declarations of the defeat of the Islamic State group, calling the claim of victory a “hallucination.”

But SDF fighters celebrated as if the final collapse were imminent. At the SDF outpost in Baghouz, a commander danced with his soldiers. Fighters said remaining IS militants didn’t put up much resistance.

“We fired on them with our rifles and heavy weapons and they didn’t shoot back. So we walked into the camp and they didn’t shoot at us,” said Orhan Hamad, from the northern province of Hassakeh.

“I tell the martyrs, it wasn’t for nothing. With God’s permission, we’ve finished Daesh.”

Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed reporting. </s> Western-backed forces said on Saturday morning that in a “very short time” they would announce the defeat of Isil.

Jiya Furat, a commander with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said that they had cornered the remaining Islamic State militants in one tiny neighbourhood of Baghouz village in eastern Deir Ezzor province, under its fire from all sides.

"Very soon bring good news to the whole world," he said in an apparent reference to an announcement about the defeat of the extremists in Syria.

There are thought to be just a few hundred Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters left, most of whom foreign.

Hundreds of civilians have poured out of Baghouz in recent days but a number are thought to still be left, which is slowing down the SDF. </s> The Latest: IS suspects in killing of 4 Americans captured

BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) — The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):

A spokesman for U.S.-backed forces fighting the Islamic State group in Syria says they have captured a group of suspects involved in a January bombing that killed four Americans in a town in northern Syria.

Mustafa Bali says the suspects were captured following technical surveillance by the group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or when they were captured.

The Americans were killed in a suicide bombing in January in the town of Manbij that was claimed by IS.

In a statement posted on Twitter on Tuesday, he said the outcome of the ongoing investigation will be shared at a later time.

Bali's statement came few hours after the SDF said it had captured an IS encampment in the eastern village of Baghouz after IS militants surrendered.

A spokesman for U.S.-backed forces fighting the Islamic State group in Syria says his fighters are in control of an encampment in the village of Baghouz where IS militants have been besieged for months.

Mustafa Bali, of the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, says clashes however are continuing elsewhere in the village in eastern Syria as IS militants continue to fight back.

Bali says on Twitter on Tuesday that controlling the encampment in Baghouz marks "significant progress" in the fight but that it's "not a victory announcement."

The area held by IS in Baghouz is the last pocket of territory in Syria controlled by the extremist group, which once held a vast area of Syria and Iraq, calling it an Islamic "caliphate." </s> BAGHOUZ, Syria — U.S.-backed Syrian forces took control Tuesday of an encampment held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, after dozens of militants surrendered overnight, a spokesman said. A group of suspects involved in a January bombing that killed four Americans in northern Syria were among militants captured by the Kurdish-led forces.

The taking of the IS encampment was a major advance but not the final defeat of the group in Baghouz, the last village held by the extremists where they have been holding out for weeks under siege, according to Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

An unknown number of militants still clung to a tiny sliver of land about 200 meters by 200 meters trapped between the Euphrates River and the encampment now held by the SDF, officials in the force said.

The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their notorious propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. On Monday, IS issued a video showing its militants furiously defending the encampment, a junkyard of wrecked cards, motorcycles and tents. In the footage. They shoot nonstop with AK-47s and M-16s from behind trucks, vehicles and sand berms.

A group of children could be seen at one point amid the fighting.

“My Muslim brothers everywhere, we did our best, the rest is up to God,” a fighter said to the backdrop of black smoke rising from behind him.

The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State group’s self-declared territorial “caliphate,” which at its height stretched across much of Syria and Iraq. For the past four years, U.S.-led forces have waged a destructive campaign to tear down the “caliphate.” But even after Baghouz’s fall, IS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten a continuing insurgency.

The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks — and the encampment has proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels.

The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of IS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out and the sheer number who emerged — nearly 30,000 since early January according to Kurdish officials — took the Kurdish-led SDF by surprise.

In the last two weeks, many IS militants appeared to be among those evacuating. But SDF commanders have stopped speculating when the battle may finally be over. Commanders say they don’t know how many more may still be left, hiding in tunnels beneath the war-scarred village.

In the seizure Tuesday of the encampment, hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment, Bali, the SDF spokesman, said in a Twitter post. Still, he cautioned, “this is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight.”

There were conflicting reports from SDF commanders on the ground about the extent of the IS surrender.

Commander Rustam Hasake told The Associated Press that SDF forces advanced on four fronts Monday night and were inside the camp when the last IS fighters surrendered at dawn. He said the last fighters were pushed out of the camp and were now in an open patch of land by the Euphrates River and were being processed and detained. It was not clear how many they were.

Another commander, however, said some IS militants continue to hold a tiny area in an open patch of land in the village, outside the encampment.

AP journalists in Baghouz reported sporadic gunfire echoing in Baghouz and jets circling overhead. At a command post in Baghouz, a Humvee pulled up and unloaded weapons captured from IS on Tuesday, including sniper and hunting rifles, pump action shot guns and grenades and ammunition.

Five trucks hauling 10 trailers full of people were seen coming out of Baghouz. A child could be heard wailing from inside one of them.

Bali, in a separate Twitter post Tuesday, said the SDF captured a group of suspects involved in a January suicide bombing that killed four Americans in the northern town of Manbij in northern Syria. He said the suspects were captured following technical surveillance by the SDF. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or whether they were among the most recent militants to surrender.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast which struck outside a popular restaurant in Manbij in January that killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. service members and two American civilians. It was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.

Bali said the outcome of the ongoing investigation will be shared at a later time.

As they make their final stand, the IS militants have issued a string of statements this month claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on the SDF.

In an audio posted online Monday, the IS spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajer, issued his first message in six months, calling for revenge attacks by Muslims in Western countries in retaliation for the shooting attack on two New Zealand mosques that killed 50 people.

He also ridiculed U.S. declarations of the defeat of the Islamic State group, calling the claim of victory a “hallucination.” </s> Syrian Democratic Forces have now raised their flag in Baghouz in eastern Syria

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces say they have "totally eliminated" Islamic State in Syria.

The SDF made the announcement as it declared the battle against the insurgents in the final IS stronghold of Baghouz in the east of the country was over.

It has been battling the last IS remnants in the border town near Iraq for weeks as the jihadists have been using civilians as human shields.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have now claimed "all territory in Syria is now clear of IS fighters".

SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted: "Syrian Democratic Forces declare total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100% territorial defeat of ISIS.

"On this unique day, we commemorate thousands of martyrs whose efforts made the victory possible." #SDFDefeatedISIS.

Thousands of civilians, including families of IS fighters, have been fleeing Baghouz in recent weeks amid intense fighting, and are now being held in camps.

At its height, the militant group's caliphate, which it declared in 2014, stretched across a third of Syria and Iraq.

However, despite the SDF's victory, IS insurgents still remain a threat.

Some are hiding out in Syria's remote central desert, and in Iraqi cities they have gone underground, carrying out shootings and kidnappings.

The US believes the group's leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who declared the caliphate five years ago in Mosul, is in Iraq.

On Friday, President Donald Trump said IS insurgents no longer controlled any territory in Syria, though the US was still launching airstrikes and sporadic fighting continued on the ground.

"It's about time," Mr Trump told reporters, as he held up maps indicating the large territory once held by IS had shrunk to nothing.

"Here's ISIS on election day," he said, pointing to a swathe of red showing the areas the insurgent group controlled when he became president.

He then pointed to a version without any red, and said "here's ISIS right now", as he linked SDF gains to his time in power. </s> Final IS bastion in Syria has fallen, claim White House, Syrian Democratic Forces

Washington, March 23: In a major announcement, the White House has said that all territories held by the Islamic State (IS) in Syria have been eliminated. US President Donald Trump also called the extremist group "losers and barely breathing".

"Just over two years ago, ISIS was considered one of the gravest threats to the future of the Middle East-and to the peace and security of the free world. Now, the self-declared caliphate has been obliterated off the map. Literally," the White House said in a tweet on Friday, March 22.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) also announced on Saturday, March 23, that the IS has lost its final stronghold in the war-ravaged nation, and that brought to an end the so-called caliphate declared by the outfit five years ago. The SDF also claimed to have fully liberated the town of Baghouz in Syria's eastern part.

"Syrian Democratic Forces declare total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100% territorial defeat of ISIS. On this unique day, we commemorate thousands of martyrs whose efforts made the victory possible," tweeted Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF press office.

The IS had controlled huge chunks of territory stretching from western Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. The IS was on the retreat in Iraq and the final battle took place over the past many weeks around Baghouz on the banks of the Euphrates River.

A coalition of Kurdish and Arab soldiers backed by the US-led western forces launched the final assault on the IS stronghold early last month.
Syrian Democratic Forces declares progress in Syria after an ISIL camp on the outskirts of Baghuz is captured.