Kurdish-led forces on Friday battled a small group of Islamic State jihadists refusing to surrender and still defending the last few acres of their moribund "caliphate" in eastern Syria.

Clashes are ongoing: Syrian Democratic Forces deny White House claim of 'wiped out' caliphate

US-backed forces in Syria are holding more than 2,000 suspected Islamic State fighters, US defence officials said, at least double previous estimates and an obstacle to Trump administration plans to withdraw American forces from Syria, Dow Jones Newswires reported in an article provided to EFE on Wednesday.

US-backed forces are holding 2,000 suspected Islamic State fighters in Syria

Hareth Najem fled Islamic State's last enclave in eastern Syria wounded and alone. The Iraqi orphan's family had died two years earlier in air strikes across the border in al-Qaim region.

Wounded and alone, children emerge from last Islamic State enclave

A US-backed force pushing to take the Islamic State group's last speck of territory in eastern Syria on Sunday extradited 280 Iraqi jihadists, Iraq authorities said.

Iraq receives 280 Islamic State jihadists from US-backed Syria force

The 19-year-old tore off the niqab she had been forced to wear since 2014. 'I feel liberated,' she said, after swapping her veil for a scarf

'We are living a new life', Souad Hamidi feels free after US-backed forces seize Islamic State-held village

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Clashes are ongoing: Syrian Democratic Forces deny White House claim of 'wiped out' caliphate

US-backed forces are holding 2,000 suspected Islamic State fighters in Syria

Wounded and alone, children emerge from last Islamic State enclave

Iraq receives 280 Islamic State jihadists from US-backed Syria force

'We are living a new life', Souad Hamidi feels free after US-backed forces seize Islamic State-held village