Us-backed fighters begin final battle with IS

BEIRUT — U.s.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian forces said Saturday they have launched a final push to defeat the Islamic State group in the last tiny pocket the extremists hold in eastern Syria.

Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted that the offensive began Saturday after more than 20,000 civilians were evacuated from the Is-held area in the eastern province of Deir el-zour. An SDF statement said the offensive was focused on the village of Baghouz.

The SDF, backed by U.S. air power, has driven IS from large swaths of territory it once controlled in northern and eastern Syria, confining the extremists to a small pocket of land near the border with Iraq.

Scores of IS fighters are now besieged in two villages, or less than 1 percent of the self-styled caliphate that once sprawled across Syria and Iraq. In recent weeks, thousands of civilians, including families of IS fighters, left the area controlled by the extremists.

“The decisive battle began tonight to finish what remains of Daesh terrorists,” Bali said, using an Arabic acronym to refer to IS.

Bali did not say how long they expect the battle to last.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said SDF fighters are advancing “cautiously” due to mines planted by IS gunmen. It said U.s.-led coalition warplanes are giving cover to advancing SDF fighters.

U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that IS has lost 99.5 percent of its territory and is holding onto less than 2 square miles in Syria, where the bulk of the fighters are concentrated. But activists and residents say IS still has sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq and is preparing for an insurgency.

The Observatory said that since the SDF began its offensive against IS in the area on Sept. 10, some 1,279 IS gunmen and 678 SDF fighters have been killed. It said 401 civilians, including 144 children and teenagers, have been killed since then.

Earlier Saturday, IS militants attacked SDF fighters near an oilfield in the country’s east, triggering airstrikes by the coalition.

The Observatory said 12 IS gunmen attacked and 10 were killed during fighting that lasted several hours.