US-backed fighters in Syria are poised to capture <a href="NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria (Reuters) - U.S.-backed fighters in Syria are poised to capture Islamic State's last, tiny enclave on the Euphrates, the battle commander said on Saturday, bringing its self-declared caliphate to the brink of total defeat. Jiya Furat said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had cornered the remaining militants in a neighbourhood of Baghouz village near the Iraqi border, under fire from all sides. &quot;In the coming few days, in a very short time, we will spread the good tidings to the world of the military end of Daesh,&quot; he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. He was speaking after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday there would be &quot;great announcements&quot; about Syria over the next 24 hours. Trump has sworn to pull U.S. forces from Syria after Islamic State's territorial defeat, raising questions over the fate of Washington's Kurdish allies and Turkish involvement in northeast Syria. As the SDF advanced under heavy U.S. airstrikes in recent days, a stream of civilians fled the few square miles of hamlets and farmland that remain within Islamic State's 'caliphate', along with defeated jihadists trying to escape unnoticed. Though Islamic State fighters still hold out in a pocket of central Syria's remote desert, and have gone underground as sleeper cells in Iraqi cities, able to launch new attacks, their territorial rule is, for now, almost over. It ends a project launched from the great mediaeval mosque of Mosul in northern Iraq in 2014, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seized advantage of regional chaos to proclaim himself caliph, suzerain over all Muslim people and land. He set up a governing system with courts, a currency and flag that at its height stretched from northwest Syria almost to Baghdad, encompassing some two million inhabitants. HUMAN SHIELDS But its reign of terror over minorities and other perceived enemies, marked by massacres, sexual slavery and the beheading of hostages, drew a forceful international military response that pushed it steadily back from 2015. M">Islamic State's last, tiny enclave on the Euphrates</a>, the battle commander said on Saturday, bringing its self-declared caliphate to the brink of total defeat.

Jiya Furat said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had cornered the remaining militants in a neighbourhood of Baghouz village near the Iraqi border, under fire from all sides.

"In the coming few days, in a very short time, we will spread the good tidings to the world of the military end of Daesh," he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

He was speaking after US President Donald Trump said on Friday there would be "great announcements" about Syria over the next 24 hours.

Trump has sworn to pull US forces from Syria after Islamic State's territorial defeat, raising questions over the fate of Washington's Kurdish allies and Turkish involvement in northeast Syria.

As the SDF advanced under heavy US airstrikes in recent days, a stream of civilians fled the few square miles of hamlets and farmland that remain within Islamic State's 'caliphate', along with defeated jihadists trying to escape unnoticed.

Though Islamic State fighters still hold out in a pocket of central Syria's remote desert and have gone underground as sleeper cells in Iraqi cities, able to launch new attacks, their territorial rule is, for now, almost over.

It ends a project launched from the great mediaeval mosque of Mosul in northern Iraq in 2014 when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seized advantage of regional chaos to proclaim himself caliph, suzerain overall Muslim people and land.

He set up a governing system with courts, currency and flag that at its height stretched from northwest Syria almost to Baghdad, encompassing some two million inhabitants.

Human shields

But its reign of terror over minorities and other perceived enemies, marked by massacres, sexual slavery and the beheading of hostages, drew a forceful international military response that pushed it steadily back from 2015.

Most of the fighters left in Baghouz are foreigners, the SDF has said, among the thousands drawn by Baghdadi's promise of a new jihadist utopia straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border and expunging national borders.

All that remains, said Furat, is an encircled pocket some 700 metres square. "Thousands of civilians are still trapped there as human shields," he said.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF had taken control of all of Baghouz after the jihadists there surrendered. SDF officials denied this.

Spokesman Mustafa Bali said the SDF had caught several militants trying to flee among the civilians. Others had handed themselves over.

Their fate and that of their families has befuddled foreign governments, with few ready to repatriate citizens who pledged allegiance to a group sworn to their destruction, but who might be hard to legally prosecute. The SDF does not want to hold them indefinitely.

The fate of Baghdadi is also a mystery. He has led the group since 2010 when it was still an underground al-Qaeda offshoot in Iraq.

Still a threat

Its capacity then for strategic retreats in hard times, followed by rebounds when circumstances changed, has prompted numerous warnings that Islamic State's defeat has not ended the threat it poses to the region.

Islamic State suffered crippling defeats in 2017 when Iraq recaptured Mosul, the SDF seized its Syrian capital of Raqqa, and the Damascus government pushed it east to the Euphrates.

But in Iraq it has switched to guerrilla hit-and-run tactics, aimed at undermining the Baghdad government. It has also claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in swathes of northeast Syria held by the SDF, including one last month that killed four Americans.

That attack came soon after Trump pledged to pull out, saying Islamic State was already defeated, rattling allies and prompting defence secretary Jim Mattis to resign.

Turkey, which regards the SDF's strongest component, the Kurdish YPG, as terrorists, has threatened to march deeper into northern Syria to drive it back.

On Friday U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, who oversees US forces in the Middle East as head of Central Command, said the end of the territorial caliphate would lead to a more dispersed, harder-to-detect network of fighters waging guerrilla warfare.

That should require continued help from Washington, he said.

US-backed fighters in Syria are poised to capture Islamic State's last, tiny enclave on the Euphrates, the battle commander said on Saturday, bringing its self-declared caliphate to the brink of total defeat.

US-backed fighters in Syria are poised to capture Islamic State's last, tiny enclave on the Euphrates, the battle commander said on Saturday, bringing its self-declared caliphate to the brink of total defeat. Jiya Furat said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had cornered the remaining militants in a neighbourhood of Baghouz village near the Iraqi border, under fire from all sides. "In the coming few days, in a very short time, we will spread the good tidings to the world of the military end of Daesh," he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. He was speaking after US President Donald Trump said on Friday there would be "great announcements" about Syria over the next 24 hours. Trump has sworn to pull US forces from Syria after Islamic State's territorial defeat, raising questions over the fate of Washington's Kurdish allies and Turkish involvement in northeast Syria. As the SDF advanced under heavy US airstrikes in recent days, a stream of civilians fled the few square miles of hamlets and farmland that remain within Islamic State's 'caliphate', along with defeated jihadists trying to escape unnoticed. Though Islamic State fighters still hold out in a pocket of central Syria's remote desert and have gone underground as sleeper cells in Iraqi cities, able to launch new attacks, their territorial rule is, for now, almost over. It ends a project launched from the great mediaeval mosque of Mosul in northern Iraq in 2014 when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seized advantage of regional chaos to proclaim himself caliph, suzerain overall Muslim people and land. He set up a governing system with courts, currency and flag that at its height stretched from northwest Syria almost to Baghdad, encompassing some two million inhabitants. Human shields But its reign of terror over minorities and other perceived enemies, marked by massacres, sexual slavery and the beheading of hostages, drew a forceful international military response that pushed it steadily back from 2015. Most of the fighters left in Baghouz are foreigners, the SDF has said, among the thousands drawn by Baghdadi's promise of a new jihadist utopia straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border and expunging national borders. All that remains, said Furat, is an encircled pocket some 700 metres square. "Thousands of civilians are still trapped there as human shields," he said. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF had taken control of all of Baghouz after the jihadists there surrendered. SDF officials denied this. Spokesman Mustafa Bali said the SDF had caught several militants trying to flee among the civilians. Others had handed themselves over. Their fate and that of their families has befuddled foreign governments, with few ready to repatriate citizens who pledged allegiance to a group sworn to their destruction, but who might be hard to legally prosecute. The SDF does not want to hold them indefinitely. The fate of Baghdadi is also a mystery. He has led the group since 2010 when it was still an underground al-Qaeda offshoot in Iraq. Still a threat Its capacity then for strategic retreats in hard times, followed by rebounds when circumstances changed, has prompted numerous warnings that Islamic State's defeat has not ended the threat it poses to the region. Islamic State suffered crippling defeats in 2017 when Iraq recaptured Mosul, the SDF seized its Syrian capital of Raqqa, and the Damascus government pushed it east to the Euphrates. But in Iraq it has switched to guerrilla hit-and-run tactics, aimed at undermining the Baghdad government. It has also claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in swathes of northeast Syria held by the SDF, including one last month that killed four Americans. That attack came soon after Trump pledged to pull out, saying Islamic State was already defeated, rattling allies and prompting defence secretary Jim Mattis to resign. Turkey, which regards the SDF's strongest component, the Kurdish YPG, as terrorists, has threatened to march deeper into northern Syria to drive it back. On Friday U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, who oversees US forces in the Middle East as head of Central Command, said the end of the territorial caliphate would lead to a more dispersed, harder-to-detect network of fighters waging guerrilla warfare. That should require continued help from Washington, he said.

Last Islamic State 'caliphate' on brink of defeat in east Syria

They were born in a "state" that no longer exists, most to fathers who are dead and mothers whose countries don't want them back. These are the children pouring out of Baghouz.

Their grimy faces are the only ones visible in the sea of black veils worn by their mothers, packed in the back of a dozen pickup trucks spiriting them away from the Islamic State <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/hundreds-flee-us-backed-syria-battle-for-last-is-holdout-196955">group's last holdout in eastern Syria</a>.

There are infants as young as three months old, their ceaseless, hungry wails synching into a single howl. The older toddlers stare in silence at the gathered journalists.

They seem to be dressed in everything they could pile on, tiny knit sweaters and hats, puffer jackets, blankets.

It is hard to tell how thin or young their mothers are under their all-encompassing black robes, but their eyes are gaunt and sunken, their bone-thin hands blackened with dirt.

Food and safe drinking water have been scarce for weeks as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces closed in on the last IS enclave near the flat, desolate village of Baghouz.

But somehow, even as the "caliphate" was dying, babies were still being born.

Khadija is one year old, born under IS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

She is swaddled in a thick blanket by her mother, a 17-year-old Syrian girl from 500 kilometres (300 miles) away in the northern city of Manbij.

Her father, just as young, has been rounded up by the SDF and placed into another truck with dozens of men.

Uncertain future&nbsp;

Asked what she hoped for her daughter, Marah pulled back the blanket from her daughter's face and just stared blankly.

There are other nationalities too — Iraqi, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian and French.&nbsp;

What awaits them? An uncertain future in a pair of displaced persons' camps run by the Kurdish administration of northern Syria, where thousands of others like them are already being held.

To get there, they cross hundreds of kilometres (miles) of the desert plain in the open-back trucks, exposed to the rain and other elements.

On either side of the desolate route lie the tattered belongings of those with little else: a torn suitcase, a ripped grey sweater, a navy blue stroller turned on its side.&nbsp;

At least 35 children have died on the route or just after arrival, according to the United Nations, most of the hypothermia.&nbsp;

In the Al-Hol reception centre, women and children - most of them under five - sit on piles of blankets, waiting for a tent to become available.

In the nearby health clinic, veiled women lay their haggard toddlers on a table for a doctor with worn-out eyes to examine.

A 19-year-old with an infant on her hip emerges from the women's clinic.

"I just found out I'm pregnant."

They were born in a "state" that no longer exists, most to fathers who are dead and mothers whose countries don't want them back. These are the children pouring out of Baghouz.

They were born in a "state" that no longer exists, most to fathers who are dead and mothers whose countries don't want them back. These are the children pouring out of Baghouz. Their grimy faces are the only ones visible in the sea of black veils worn by their mothers, packed in the back of a dozen pickup trucks spiriting them away from the Islamic State group's last holdout in eastern Syria. There are infants as young as three months old, their ceaseless, hungry wails synching into a single howl. The older toddlers stare in silence at the gathered journalists. They seem to be dressed in everything they could pile on, tiny knit sweaters and hats, puffer jackets, blankets. It is hard to tell how thin or young their mothers are under their all-encompassing black robes, but their eyes are gaunt and sunken, their bone-thin hands blackened with dirt. Food and safe drinking water have been scarce for weeks as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces closed in on the last IS enclave near the flat, desolate village of Baghouz. But somehow, even as the "caliphate" was dying, babies were still being born. Khadija is one year old, born under IS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. She is swaddled in a thick blanket by her mother, a 17-year-old Syrian girl from 500 kilometres (300 miles) away in the northern city of Manbij. Her father, just as young, has been rounded up by the SDF and placed into another truck with dozens of men. Uncertain future Asked what she hoped for her daughter, Marah pulled back the blanket from her daughter's face and just stared blankly. There are other nationalities too — Iraqi, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian and French. What awaits them? An uncertain future in a pair of displaced persons' camps run by the Kurdish administration of northern Syria, where thousands of others like them are already being held. To get there, they cross hundreds of kilometres (miles) of the desert plain in the open-back trucks, exposed to the rain and other elements. On either side of the desolate route lie the tattered belongings of those with little else: a torn suitcase, a ripped grey sweater, a navy blue stroller turned on its side. At least 35 children have died on the route or just after arrival, according to the United Nations, most of the hypothermia. In the Al-Hol reception centre, women and children - most of them under five - sit on piles of blankets, waiting for a tent to become available. In the nearby health clinic, veiled women lay their haggard toddlers on a table for a doctor with worn-out eyes to examine. A 19-year-old with an infant on her hip emerges from the women's clinic. "I just found out I'm pregnant."

In eastern Syria, the infants of a dying IS 'caliphate'

The US-backed <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/heavy-clashes-as-us-backed-forces-battle-is-in-syria-report-196387">Syrian Democratic Forces</a> (SDF) have seized ground from<a href="http://13.232.42.114/world/us-backed-syrian-forces-launch-final-battle-against-islamic-state-enclave-196295"> Islamic State</a> in a fierce battle to capture its last enclave in eastern Syria, an SDF official said on Sunday.

The SDF, backed by a US-led coalition, began the assault on Saturday, seeking to wipe out the last remnants of the jihadist group's "caliphate" in the SDF`s area of operations in eastern and northern Syria.&nbsp;

The enclave is close to the Iraqi border and comprises two villages. Islamic State (IS) also still retains territory in the part of Syria that is mostly under the control of the Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian government.

SDF fighters had so far seized 41 positions but had faced counter-attacks early on Sunday that had been repelled, Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF media office, told Reuters.

"The clashes are ferocious naturally because the terrorist group is defending its last stronghold."

President Donald Trump, who is planning to pull U.S. forces out of Syria, said on Wednesday he expected a formal announcement as early as this week that the coalition had reclaimed all the territory previously held by Islamic State.&nbsp;

Bali said 400 to 600 jihadists were estimated to be holed up in the enclave, including foreigners and other hardened fighters.

Between 500 to 1,000 civilians are also estimated to be inside, Bali said. More than 20,000 civilians were evacuated in the 10 days leading up to Saturday, he said.

"If we can, in a short time frame, get the (remaining) civilians out or isolate them, I believe that the coming few days will witness the military end of the terrorist organisation in this area," Bali said.

Senior SDF official Redur Xelil told Reuters on Saturday the force hoped to capture the area by the end of February but cautioned that IS would continue to pose "great and serious" security threats even after that.

IS redrew the map of the Middle East in 2014 when it declared a caliphate across large areas of Syria and Iraq. But it steadily lost ground and its two main prizes - the Syrian city of Raqqa and Iraq`s Mosul - fell in 2017.&nbsp;

Spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, the SDF has been the main US partner in Syria.&nbsp;

A top US general said last week Islamic State would pose an enduring threat following the US withdrawal, as it still has leaders, fighters, facilitators and resources.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have seized ground from Islamic State in a fierce battle to capture its last enclave in eastern Syria, an SDF official said on Sunday.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have seized ground from Islamic State in a fierce battle to capture its last enclave in eastern Syria, an SDF official said on Sunday. The SDF, backed by a US-led coalition, began the assault on Saturday, seeking to wipe out the last remnants of the jihadist group's "caliphate" in the SDF`s area of operations in eastern and northern Syria. The enclave is close to the Iraqi border and comprises two villages. Islamic State (IS) also still retains territory in the part of Syria that is mostly under the control of the Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian government. SDF fighters had so far seized 41 positions but had faced counter-attacks early on Sunday that had been repelled, Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF media office, told Reuters. "The clashes are ferocious naturally because the terrorist group is defending its last stronghold." President Donald Trump, who is planning to pull U.S. forces out of Syria, said on Wednesday he expected a formal announcement as early as this week that the coalition had reclaimed all the territory previously held by Islamic State. Bali said 400 to 600 jihadists were estimated to be holed up in the enclave, including foreigners and other hardened fighters. Between 500 to 1,000 civilians are also estimated to be inside, Bali said. More than 20,000 civilians were evacuated in the 10 days leading up to Saturday, he said. "If we can, in a short time frame, get the (remaining) civilians out or isolate them, I believe that the coming few days will witness the military end of the terrorist organisation in this area," Bali said. Senior SDF official Redur Xelil told Reuters on Saturday the force hoped to capture the area by the end of February but cautioned that IS would continue to pose "great and serious" security threats even after that. IS redrew the map of the Middle East in 2014 when it declared a caliphate across large areas of Syria and Iraq. But it steadily lost ground and its two main prizes - the Syrian city of Raqqa and Iraq`s Mosul - fell in 2017. Spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, the SDF has been the main US partner in Syria. A top US general said last week Islamic State would pose an enduring threat following the US withdrawal, as it still has leaders, fighters, facilitators and resources.

US-backed Syrian fighters close in on last Islamic State-held area in eastern Syria

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Last Islamic State 'caliphate' on brink of defeat in east Syria

In eastern Syria, the infants of a dying IS 'caliphate'

US-backed Syrian fighters close in on last Islamic State-held area in eastern Syria