White House: Islamic State territory in Syria eliminated

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — All remaining territory has been wrested from the Islamic State group in Syria, President Donald Trump announced today, though officials said sporadic fighting continued on the ground between coalition forces and the group's holdouts.

The complete fall of the last IS stronghold in Baghouz, Syria, would mark the end of the Islamic State group's self-declared caliphate, which at its height stretched across large parts of Syria and Iraq. Controlling territory gave the group room to launch attacks around the world.

Trump said "it's about time" the group no longer controlled territory in the region, after a campaign by U.S. and coalition forces that spanned five years and two U.S. presidencies unleashed more than 100,000 bombs and killed untold numbers of civilians.

The IS "territorial caliphate has been eliminated in Syria," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One.

U.S. officials familiar with the situation in Syria said today the Syrian Democratic Forces were still battling the last remaining IS fighters who were holed up in tunnels along the river cliffs in Baghouz and had refused to surrender.

The SDF has not announced any declaration of victory, and there was no announcement planned today, officials said.

Associated Press journalists in Baghouz, in eastern Syria, said coalition fighters were still conducting mop-up operations in the village after seizing an encampment Tuesday where the extremists had been holed up for months.

SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel told AP earlier today there were still IS fighters and women and children hiding in caves near Baghouz. He said final operations were ongoing and there appeared to be several hundred people still inside. Other SDF officials said the camp was full of corpses, and that some civilians and IS fighters were still handing themselves over.

At least two airstrikes were carried out on Baghouz earlier Friday, sending black smoke rising in the village.

According to the officials, the SDF is moving slowly and carefully, and is willing to wait out the IS fighters who are out of food and low on water. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss mission details.

Sanders told reporters that Trump was briefed about the development by acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan who was traveling with him to Florida. "We got the information from the DOD," she added.