Last civilians evacuated as SDF forces attack IS

US-backed Syrian forces are trying to liberate the last pocket held by IS fighters in Baghouz. The capture of the last pocket would mark the end of a devastating four-year global campaign to end the extremist group's hold on territory in Syria and Iraq.

Baghouz: US-backed Syrian forces on Friday resumed military operations to liberate the last piece of territory held by the Islamic state group in Syria after evacuating the last batch of civilians and hostages, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said.

Thousands of civilians have been evacuated, many of them women and children in desperate conditions.

The evacuees said food was running low and clean water and medicine were scarce.

Many defended what remained of the extremist group's territorial hold, which once spanned a third of Iraq and Syria.

Many women on Friday said they are wives and relatives of Islamic State group militants and said they accepted to leave Baghouz only because they are in need of medical care or food.

An Indonesian woman said she left with her five children only because one of her daughters was injured on her leg and arm by an airstrike.

The woman, who did not give her name, accused the coalition of killing many women and children, and said she would continue to fight her jihad.

Women and children were searched before being transferred to camps miles away.

Men suspected of links to the militant group were taken into custody at other facilities.

The military campaign to uproot the militants from the eastern banks of the Euphrates began in September, pushing them down toward this last corner in the village of Baghouz, near the Iraqi border.

The military operation was halted on February 12 after the SDF discovered there was still a large number of civilians and hostages in the territory, which sits atop caves and tunnels where they had been hiding.

Officials estimate that there are hundreds of IS militants left in the small patch of territory in Baghouz, and that they will likely fight till the end.

The capture of the last pocket still held by IS fighters in 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 so-called "caliphate" that at the height of the group's power in 2014 controlled nearly a third of both Iraq and Syria.