U.S.-backed fighters press offensive against militants

BAGHOUZ, Syria — A U.S.backed force in Syria is closing in on Islamic State militants occupying a tiny area less than a square mile in eastern Syria, and will soon declare the defeat of the extremists, a commander said Saturday.

The capture of the last pocket still held by Islamic State fighters in the village of Baghouz would mark the end of a devastating four-year global campaign to end the extremist group’s hold on territory in Syria and Iraq — their selfproclaimed “caliphate” that at the height of the group’s power in 2014 controlled nearly a third of both Iraq and Syria.

“We will very soon bring good news to the whole world,” said Ciya Furat, a commander with the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

An Associated Press team in Baghouz on Saturday, hundreds of yards away from the last speck of land where the militants were holed up, saw several aircraft overhead and two air strikes hit the area. SDF fighters said the strikes were fired by the U.S.-led coalition.

The Syrian Democratic Forces declared the final push to capture the village a week ago after more than 20,000 civilians, many of them the wives and families of foreign fighters, were evacuated.

Since then, SDF commanders say they have been surprised to discover that there were hundreds more civilians in the enclave, after they were brought up by the militants from underground tunnels. Their presence has slowed the SDF advance. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said SDF fighters are almost in full control of the area once controlled by extremists, adding that there might still be militants hiding in a network of underground tunnels.

The Observatory said that some 200 Islamic State gunmen surrendered Friday, days after about 240 others surrendered and were taken by SDF fighters and members of the U.S.-led coalition.

“The defeat of Daesh will come within days,” Furat said, using the Arabic acronym to refer to the group. He added that after the physical defeat of Islamic State, the SDF “will continue in its fight against Daesh sleepers cells.”

Despite the expected defeat on the ground, activists and residents say Islamic State still has sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq and is laying the groundwork for an insurgency.

Sarah El Deeb is an Associated Press writer.