US allies in Syria find IS militants in tunnels

U.s.-backed Syrian fighters cleared explosives in the last area retaken from the Islamic State group on Sunday, and they also arrested a number of militants hiding in tunnels, a day after declaring military victory and the end of the extremists’ self-styled caliphate.

The U.s.-led coalition said the clearing operations will continue until the area is secure.

A spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who goes by the nom de guerre Mervan The Brave, said Baghouz village where the militants made their final stand is “full of all kinds of explosives.” He said SDF forces have detonated land mines and suicide belts left behind by the militants.

Other activist groups monitoring the area reported limited clashes between remaining militants and SDF fighters.

On Saturday, hours after the declaration of victory, a Syrian driver working with NBC News reporters was killed by an explosive device that went off in a house used by the SDF as a command post and as a media center for journalists covering the fighting in Baghouz.

Noah Oppenheim, the president of NBC News, said in a statement that network employees escaped unharmed and that the reason for the explosion was being investigated. He expressed “deepest sympathies” to the driver’s family and said the network is in touch with them to “support them however we can.”

NBC had been among the dozens of news outlets reporting on the battle to push ISIS out of Baghouz. The U.s.-led coalition had heavily bombed the area, raising concerns about unexploded ordnance that might remain.