US-backed forces capture Syrian militants

US-backed Syrian forces have made some advances against Islamic State fighters in their last pocket in eastern Syria and captured some of the militants there, a monitoring group says.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Sunday they had resumed their campaign to expel Islamic State from the village of Baghuz after briefly suspending it to evacuate civilians still trapped there.

“The advances are slow out of fear of suicide attacks and mines, but the confrontation by the Islamic State fighters inside Baghuz is not strong,” the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told dpa.

He added that planes of the US-led coalition were striking posts where the SDF faced confrontation by Islamic State.

Baghuz, located on the Euphrates river in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq, is the last significant territory still in the hands of Islamic State, which for years controlled swathes of both countries.

According to the observatory SDF fighters managed to advance to some parts of the Baghuz camp and the agriculture fields around the village where Islamic State militants are still holed in.

It added that SDF fighters managed to capture a number of jihadists.

Syria’s Kurds have played a major role in fighting Islamic State in the war-torn country.