US-backed forces locked in fierce fighting to take last IS pocket in Syria

HASAKEH, Syria — US-backed forces are locked in fierce fighting Sunday as they press the battle against the last shred of the Islamic State jihadist group’s “caliphate” in eastern Syria.

The jihadists overran large parts of the country and neighboring Iraq in 2014, but various military offensives have since reduced that territory to a patch on the Iraqi border.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by a US-led coalition, announced a final push to retake the jihadist pocket late Saturday, after a pause of more than a week to allow civilians to flee.

An SDF field commander says his fighters were battling their way forwards on Sunday morning.

“There are heavy clashes at the moment. We have launched an assault and the fighters are advancing,” he tells AFP.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group says coalition planes and artillery are bombarding jihadist positions.

“The battle is ongoing. There were heavy clashes this morning, with landmines going off,” says Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Observatory.

Up to 600 jihadists could still remain inside, most of them foreigners, according to SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali.

But he adds the extremist group’s elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was likely not in the pocket.

— AFP