A United States-backed Syrian militia on Tuesday announced it had captured a camp from the Islamic State terror group in eastern Syria, leaving the organization's remaining territory in the war-torn country further weakened.

Last week, the Syrian Democratic Forces, an ethnically-mixed militia led by Kurds, resumed their final offensive to liberate the village of Baghuz after evacuating thousands of civilians. </s> The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces say they have captured a camp from Islamic State in eastern Syria, as the extremist group's sliver of remaining territory in the war-ravaged country wanes further.

"The SDF is in control of Daesh encampment area in Baghuz," SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali wrote on Twitter.

"This is not a victory announcement but a significant progress in the fight against Daesh," he wrote, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Late on Tuesday around 12 Islamic State suicide bombers blew themselves up after they refused to surrender, SDF commander Adnan Afrin said.

He added that several Islamic State fighters also surrendered to SDF fighters who were combing the area they took earlier.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that around 1,000 jihadists handed themselves over the SDF, some of them sick and wounded.

The SDF said the Islamic State fighters are now confined to a tiny pocket on the edges of the Euphrates river and are holding their families as human shields.

Last week, the SDF, a Kurdish-led rebel group, resumed a campaign supported by the US-led air coalition with the aim of capturing the village of Baghuz after evacuating thousands of civilians.

The Kurdish spokesman stressed in comments to dpa that battles are "fierce ... on some fronts there are tit-for-tat attacks, on other fronts there are some advances."

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.

Kurdish sources have said that the presence of hundreds of mines in the area is slowing their advances in the village. </s> BAGHOUZ, Syria (Reuters) - The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched an assault on Sunday against the final Islamic State enclave in eastern Syria, aiming to wipe out the last vestige of its self-declared “caliphate” that once spanned a third of Iraq and Syria.

While the Baghouz enclave represents the last shred of populated land held by the jihadists, the group is still widely seen as a big security threat with remote territory elsewhere and the continued capacity to launch guerrilla attacks.

The SDF, spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, has been poised to advance into the enclave for weeks, but has repeatedly held back to allow for the evacuation of civilians, many of them wives and children of Islamic State fighters.

Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF media office, said no further civilians had emerged from the enclave at the Iraqi border since Saturday and the SDF had not observed any more civilians in the area, prompting the decision to attack.

“The military operations have started. Our forces are now clashing with the terrorists and the attack started,” he said.

Tens of thousands of people have streamed out of the shrinking territory held by Islamic State over the last months.

Bali said more than 4,000 militants had surrendered to the SDF in the past month.

Earlier on Sunday, a Reuters correspondent saw SDF forces advance into a tented area of Baghouz after Islamic State fighters withdrew from it. SDF fighters gathered some ammunition and rifles left behind by the jihadists. </s> US-backed forces in Syria have announced the liberation of the last area held by Islamic State in the eastern Syrian village of Baghuz, declaring victory over the extremist group and the end of its self-declared Islamic caliphate.

“Baghuz is free and the military victory against Daesh has been achieved,” tweeted Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, referring to the group by its Arabic acronym.

Elimination of the last Isis stronghold in Baghuz marks the end of the militants’ self-declared caliphate, which at its height blanketed large parts of Syria and Iraq. The campaign to take back the territory by the US and its partners has spanned five years and two US presidencies, unleashed more than 100,000 bombs and killed untold numbers of fighters and civilians.

But the weekend announcement, in a tweet, was anti-climactic, and on the ground sporadic gunfire continued. A day earlier President Donald Trump had declared Islamic State militants no longer controlled any territory in Syria.

Associated Press journalists in Baghuz on Saturday reported hearing mortars and gunfire directed toward a cliff overlooking Baghuz, where US-led coalition airstrikes were carried out a day earlier. SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel said on Friday that there were still Isis fighters hiding in caves near Baghuz and clearing operations were still under way.

At its height the Islamic State group ruled a third of both Syria and Iraq, holding millions of people hostage to its harsh and violent interpretation of Islamic law. The group carried out large-scale massacres and documented them with videos circulated online. During a rampage through Iraq’s Sinjar region in 2014 it captured thousands of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority and forced them into sexual slavery. Many are still missing.

The group also used its caliphate as a launchpad for attacks around the globe, including the assaults in Paris in 2015 that killed more than 130 people.

While it imposed an unforgiving version of Islamic law through public beheadings and crucifixions, the group also attempted the mundane duties of governance in its territories, including regulating prices at markets and building infrastructure.

Isis no longer controls any territory in Syria or Iraq but continues to carry out insurgent attacks in both countries. It maintains affiliates in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Afghanistan and elsewhere. </s> Western-backed forces said on Saturday morning that in a “very short time” they would announce the defeat of Isil.

Jiya Furat, a commander with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said that they had cornered the remaining Islamic State militants in one tiny neighbourhood of Baghouz village in eastern Deir Ezzor province, under its fire from all sides.

"Very soon bring good news to the whole world," he said in an apparent reference to an announcement about the defeat of the extremists in Syria.

There are thought to be just a few hundred Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters left, most of whom foreign.

Hundreds of civilians have poured out of Baghouz in recent days but a number are thought to still be left, which is slowing down the SDF. </s> The Latest: IS suspects in killing of 4 Americans captured

BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) — The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):

A spokesman for U.S.-backed forces fighting the Islamic State group in Syria says they have captured a group of suspects involved in a January bombing that killed four Americans in a town in northern Syria.

Mustafa Bali says the suspects were captured following technical surveillance by the group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or when they were captured.

The Americans were killed in a suicide bombing in January in the town of Manbij that was claimed by IS.

In a statement posted on Twitter on Tuesday, he said the outcome of the ongoing investigation will be shared at a later time.

Bali's statement came few hours after the SDF said it had captured an IS encampment in the eastern village of Baghouz after IS militants surrendered.

A spokesman for U.S.-backed forces fighting the Islamic State group in Syria says his fighters are in control of an encampment in the village of Baghouz where IS militants have been besieged for months.

Mustafa Bali, of the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, says clashes however are continuing elsewhere in the village in eastern Syria as IS militants continue to fight back.

Bali says on Twitter on Tuesday that controlling the encampment in Baghouz marks "significant progress" in the fight but that it's "not a victory announcement."

The area held by IS in Baghouz is the last pocket of territory in Syria controlled by the extremist group, which once held a vast area of Syria and Iraq, calling it an Islamic "caliphate."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have taken control of Al-Baghuz Fawqani, following the surrender of the last remaining ISIL militants in the town.