Defeat of IS looms as hundreds leave last area in Syria

OUTSIDE BAGHOUZ, Syria — Hundreds of people leave the last area held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria on Tuesday where they gathered in a massive reception area to be searched and screened by US-backed fighters.

Some of those who gathered outside the village of Baghouz say they had been waiting since the previous night when hundreds left the IS-held pocket. The latest wave of evacuations brings the final defeat of the extremists’ so-called “caliphate” at the hands of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces closer.

Officers from the US-led coalition were seen screening the men who had left the IS-held area to determine if they were militants or civilians.

The exodus comes three days after the US-backed forces resumed their push on IS fighters holed up in Baghouz on the banks of the Euphrates River, close to the Iraqi border.

In past weeks, thousands of civilians left the speck of territory in organized evacuations following an earlier halt in fighting. The Kurdish-led forces said their fighters were surprised by the large number of civilians, including IS family members, cooped up in the tiny area squeezed smaller and smaller by intermittent offensives.

— AP