ISIS ‘100 per cent’ wiped out after five-year reign of terror and bloodshed, US declares
The US Defense Department says the militant group no longer holds any territory in Syria, a White House spokeswoman said this afternoon
ISIS has lost "100 per cent" of its territory, Donald Trump has declared, though fighting continues in the jihadis' final enclave.
The White House said the final area held by ISIS has been "eliminated" marking the end of a brutal five year reign that saw the death cult conquer huge swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.
ISIS have been steadily pushed back into a tiny pocket by the bank of the River Euphrates in north eastern Syria by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
But while the US President was declaring ISIS finished, SDF forces on the ground were still reporting skirmishes.
"Heavy fighting continues around mount Baghouz right now to finish off whatever remains of ISIS ," said Mustafa Bali, head of the Syrian Democratic Forces media office on Twitter.
Trump has bren showing off before-and-after map demonstrate the extent of ISIS losses during his presidency.
Speaking on the tarmac by Air Force One in West Palm Beach, Florida he said: "Here's ISIS on Election Day. And here's ISIS right now."
Later also tweeted: "There is nothing to admire about them, they will always try to show a glimmer of vicious hope, but they are losers and barely breathing."
All Islamic State no longer held ain Syria, has been "1oo per cent eliminated", a White House spokeswoman said on Friday.
They are losers and barely breathing
The bloodthirsty Islamists dug a network of tunnels in the village of Baghouz, eastern Syrian, where hundreds of fighters staged their last stand.
When they fled they left an armoury of abandoned weapons in their wake.
Thousands of civilians have been streaming out of Baghouz, creating a desperate humanitarian situation for the mainly women and children living in camp.
The International Rescue Committee said another 2,000 women and children had arrived late on Wednesday at the al-Hol camp in northeastern .
The al-Hol camp is now holding more than 72,000 people, including more than 40,000 children, IRC said.
The total number of deaths on the way to it or shortly after arriving now stood at 138, the overwhelming number of them babies and infants.
US-backed forces have seized hundreds of wounded ISIS fighters after the killer cult's last death camp in Syria collapsed under a non-stop barrage of bullets and bombs.
Among those killed include the ISIS fanatics behind the Paris terror attacks.
Speaking on Wednesday, the US President shared a map showing how the so-called caliphate's territory has been reduced to a tiny spot - which he said "will be gone by tonight".
Hours earlier, the terror group's media wing released images of its hardened warriors involved in a bloody gun battle with the Syrian Democratic Forces in the enclave.
However, the SDF has now claimed the final wounded militants were being transported from the fallen stronghold at Baghouz to be detained away from the frontline.
A group of suspects involved in a January bombing that killed four Americans in northern Syria were among militants captured by the Kurdish-led forces.
However, the taking of the encampment, though a massive milestone, is not the final defeat of ISIS in the region, said Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the SDF.
"This is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight," Bali said in a Twitter post.
He said hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment.
As the jihadis fled the battlefront they left an armoury of weapons behind, near the village of Baghouz, where the ISIS killers are holed up
The jihadis were cornered in a final pocket of land by the Euphrates River.
SDF forces have been pushing them back through their booby trapped enclave.
ISIS no longer controls any territory, marking the end of its caliphate.
HIDDEN CAVES
The ISIS-held village of Baghouz was 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."
Its fall marked the end of the devastating four-year campaign to end ISIS's hold on any kind of territory, although it maintains scattered presence and sleeper cells in both countries.
The battle for Baghouz including the encampment, a collection of tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels has dragged on for weeks.
The sheer number of people who have emerged, nearly 30,000 since early January according to Kurdish officials, has taken the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces by surprise.
Most have been women and children whose existence in a labyrinth of underground caves and tunnels was unknown to the SDF.
The World Health Organisation said on 106 people, mainly infants, have died since December on the journey from Baghouz to the detention camp at al-Hol, which takes at least six hours.
Many evacuees, particularly foreigners, still express obdurate support for ISIS, posing difficult security, legal and moral questions for their countries of origin.
Those issues were underscored on Friday with the death of the newborn son of Shamima Begum, a British woman who left London to join Islamic State when she was a schoolgirl.
The UK government stripped her of her citizenship on security grounds last month.
The jihadis last stronghold is nothing more than a collection of tents and stationary vehicles.
Defiant ISIS fanatics release footage of their bloody final stand after caliphate was reduced to a few cars and tents
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