ISIS Camp In Baghouz Is Captured As U.S. Allies Declare Progress In Syria

Enlarge this image toggle caption Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are now in control of an ISIS encampment in Baghouz after weeks of operations and attacks on the village. But isolated gun battles are continuing in the area, seen as ISIS' last remaining redoubt.

"This is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight against Daesh," said Mustafa Bali, the head of the SDF press office. In a tweet, he added, "Clashes are continuing as a group of ISIS terrorists who are confined into a tiny area still fight back."

The last holdouts of ISIS have been largely confined to Baghuoz since last month. The Kurdish-led SDF launched a new offensive on March 10 after slowing its push to allow civilians to flee — and to let thousands of ISIS fighters and their families surrender.

In the final push to control Baghouz, the SDF blew up an ammunition storage area and slowly pried positions away from ISIS. On Tuesday, the SDF captured hundreds of sick or injured ISIS militants and sent them to nearby hospitals, Bali said.

"This is the slow unraveling of Baghouz, the last ISIS holdout, whose capture will mark the end of the group's territory, which once spanned hundreds of miles across Iraq and Syria," NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports for our Newscast unit. "More than 60,000 people have poured out of this area in the past two months. Most of them have been ISIS fighters, supporters, and their children, but there have also been ISIS victims – Yazidi children and women who were taken by the group from Iraq and used as slaves."

Sherlock adds, "It's believed more hostages – Yazidis, westerners and others – are still trapped inside."

Enlarge this image toggle caption Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images

Separately, Bali said the SDF had captured 157 people he described as experienced terrorists — including more than 100 foreign nationals who had flocked to join the extremist group in its heyday.

Baghouz sits along the Euphrates River at the Iraqi border in eastern Syria. As of last month, U.S. intelligence officials said they believed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may be hiding out in Iraq.

ISIS, which once produced elaborate propaganda and shocking videos of violence and abuse, has largely fallen silent as it has lost territory and oil-related revenue. But recently, the group's spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, reacted to the mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand, calling for the group's followers to take up a religious war.

Muhajir, whose true identity remains unknown, also mocked the U.S. and President Trump — particularly the president's very public claim of victory over ISIS at the end of 2018. And he spoke about Baghdadi in a way that implies the leader is still alive.</s>Senior U.S. defense officials told Fox News on Tuesday they were unsure whether five ISIS terrorists captured by U.S.-backed forces in Syria were responsible for a January suicide bombing that killed four Americans, as previously claimed.

A defense official initially confirmed claims by the Syrian Democratic Forces that "a group of suspects believed to be involved" in the Jan. 16 suicide attack had been apprehended. However, a senior Pentagon official was "unable to confirm at what level these fighters were involved, if at all" in the bombing. New information suggested the captured militants, who were being interrogated by Kurdish allies of the U.S. and SDF, were not as senior as initially claimed.

BRITISH ACTOR WHO JOINED ANTI-ISIS FIGHT SAYS HE'S HAVING TROUBLE GAINING RE-ENTRY TO ENGLAND, U.S.

The attack on Jan. 16 killed Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan Farmer, Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent and Scott Wirtz from the Defense Intelligence Agency. It also killed Ghadir Taher, a naturalized U.S. citizen working as a civilian interpreter for a U.S. contractor.

Farmer served on six overseas combat tours and has received numerous awards and decorations including the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart. He is survived by his spouse and four children.

Kent, a cryptologic technician stationed at Fort Meade, was the first female Navy service member killed in the battle against ISIS. The 35-year-old from upstate New York was supposed to get her clinical psychology doctorate, but the Navy decided not to send her to the program because of her history with cancer, sending her instead on her fifth combat deployment.

Wirtz, 42, had been an operations support specialist since February 2017, and served on multiple deployments. He served in the U.S. Navy and as a Navy SEAL. Military awards and decorations include the SEAL Insignia, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Rifle Marksmanship Ribbon and Pistol Expert Medal.

The suicide attack hit near the main market in the northern city of Manbij. ISIS claimed responsibility for the blast, saying one of its members carried out the suicide attack and detonated his explosive vest. The attack was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.

U.S.-BACKED KURDS SAY THEY'RE CLEARING OUT LAST ISIS STRONGHOLD IN SYRIA

Video of the attack released by local activists and news agencies showed a restaurant that suffered extensive damage and a street covered with debris and blood. A security camera showed a busy street, and then a ball of fire engulfing people and others running for cover as the blast went off.

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The attack prompted new complaints about the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. President Trump had recently announced that ISIS has been defeated and he was pulling about 2,000 American troops out of Syria. He later agreed to leave a small U.S. presence behind to keep the pressure on remaining ISIS fighters.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, Katherine Lam, Kathleen Joyce and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>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 — U.S.-backed Syrian forces took control Tuesday of an encampment held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, after dozens of militants surrendered overnight, a spokesman said. 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.

The taking of the IS encampment was a major advance but not the final defeat of the group in Baghouz, the last village held by the extremists where they have been holding out for weeks under siege, according to Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

An unknown number of militants still clung to a tiny sliver of land about 200 meters by 200 meters trapped between the Euphrates River and the encampment now held by the SDF, officials in the force said.

The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their notorious propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. On Monday, IS issued a video showing its militants furiously defending the encampment, a junkyard of wrecked cards, motorcycles and tents. In the footage. They shoot nonstop with AK-47s and M-16s from behind trucks, vehicles and sand berms.

A group of children could be seen at one point amid the fighting.

“My Muslim brothers everywhere, we did our best, the rest is up to God,” a fighter said to the backdrop of black smoke rising from behind him.

The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State group’s self-declared territorial “caliphate,” which at its height stretched across much of Syria and Iraq. For the past four years, U.S.-led forces have waged a destructive campaign to tear down the “caliphate.” But even after Baghouz’s fall, IS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten a continuing insurgency.

The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks — and the encampment has proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels.

The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of IS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out and the sheer number who emerged — nearly 30,000 since early January according to Kurdish officials — took the Kurdish-led SDF by surprise.

In the last two weeks, many IS militants appeared to be among those evacuating. But SDF commanders have stopped speculating when the battle may finally be over. Commanders say they don’t know how many more may still be left, hiding in tunnels beneath the war-scarred village.

In the seizure Tuesday of the encampment, hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment, Bali, the SDF spokesman, said in a Twitter post. Still, he cautioned, “this is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight.”

There were conflicting reports from SDF commanders on the ground about the extent of the IS surrender.

Commander Rustam Hasake told The Associated Press that SDF forces advanced on four fronts Monday night and were inside the camp when the last IS fighters surrendered at dawn. He said the last fighters were pushed out of the camp and were now in an open patch of land by the Euphrates River and were being processed and detained. It was not clear how many they were.

Another commander, however, said some IS militants continue to hold a tiny area in an open patch of land in the village, outside the encampment.

AP journalists in Baghouz reported sporadic gunfire echoing in Baghouz and jets circling overhead. At a command post in Baghouz, a Humvee pulled up and unloaded weapons captured from IS on Tuesday, including sniper and hunting rifles, pump action shot guns and grenades and ammunition.

Five trucks hauling 10 trailers full of people were seen coming out of Baghouz. A child could be heard wailing from inside one of them.

Bali, in a separate Twitter post Tuesday, said the SDF captured a group of suspects involved in a January suicide bombing that killed four Americans in the northern town of Manbij in northern Syria. He said the suspects were captured following technical surveillance by the SDF. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or whether they were among the most recent militants to surrender.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast which struck outside a popular restaurant in Manbij in January that killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. service members and two American civilians. It was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.

Bali said the outcome of the ongoing investigation will be shared at a later time.

As they make their final stand, the IS militants have issued a string of statements this month claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on the SDF.

In an audio posted online Monday, the IS spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajer, issued his first message in six months, calling for revenge attacks by Muslims in Western countries in retaliation for the shooting attack on two New Zealand mosques that killed 50 people.

He also ridiculed U.S. declarations of the defeat of the Islamic State group, calling the claim of victory a “hallucination.”</s>BAGHOUZ, Syria -- U.S.-backed Syrian forces took control Tuesday of an encampment held by the Islamic State in eastern Syria, after dozens of militants surrendered overnight, a spokesman said. Several militants believed to have been involved in a January bombing that killed four Americans in northern Syria were among those captured by the Kurdish-led forces.

The taking of the Islamic State encampment was a major advance but not the final defeat of the group in Baghouz, the last village held by the extremists where they have been holding out for weeks under siege, according to Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

An unknown number of militants still clung to a tiny sliver of land about 200 yards by 200 yards trapped between the Euphrates River and the encampment now held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, officials in the force said.

The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. On Monday, the Islamic State issued a video showing its militants furiously defending the encampment, a junkyard of wrecked cars, motorcycles and tents. In the footage, they shoot nonstop with AK-47s and M-16s from behind trucks, vehicles and sand berms.

A group of children could be seen at one point amid the fighting.

"My Muslim brothers everywhere, we did our best, the rest is up to God," a fighter said to the backdrop of black smoke rising from behind him.

The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State's self-declared territorial caliphate, which at its height stretched across much of Syria and Iraq. For the past four years, U.S.-led forces have waged a destructive campaign to tear down the caliphate. But even after Baghouz's fall, a scattered presence and sleeper cells threaten a continuing insurgency.

The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks -- and the encampment has proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels.

The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of Islamic State members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out and the sheer number who emerged -- nearly 30,000 since early January according to Kurdish officials -- took the Kurdish-led force by surprise.

In the past two weeks, many militants appeared to be among those evacuating. But Syrian Democratic Forces commanders have stopped speculating when the battle may finally be over. Commanders say they don't know how many more may still be left, hiding in tunnels beneath the war-scarred village.

In the seizure Tuesday of the encampment, hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment, Bali, the Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman, said in a Twitter post. Still, he cautioned, "this is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight."

There were conflicting reports from Syrian Democratic Forces commanders on the ground about the extent of the Islamic State surrender.

Commander Rustam Hasake said Syrian Democratic Forces forces advanced on four fronts Monday night and were inside the camp when the last militant fighters surrendered at dawn. He said the last fighters were pushed out of the camp and were now in an open patch of land by the Euphrates River and were being processed and detained. It was not clear how many they were.

Another commander, however, said some militants continue to hold a tiny area in an open patch of land in the village, outside the encampment.

Bali, in a separate Twitter post Tuesday, said the Syrian Democratic Forces captured a group of suspects involved in a January suicide bombing that killed four Americans in the northern town of Manbij in northern Syria. He said the suspects were captured after technical surveillance by the the Kurdish-led forces. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or whether they were among the most recent militants to surrender.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast which struck outside a popular restaurant in Manbij in January that killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. service members and two American civilians. It was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.

Bali said the outcome of the ongoing investigation will be shared at a later time.

Information for this article was contributed by Maamoun Youssef and Zeina Karam of The Associated Press.</s>BAGHOUZ, Syria — U.S.-backed Syrian forces on Tuesday seized control of an encampment held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, after hundreds of militants surrendered overnight, a spokesman said, signaling the group’s collapse after months of stiff resistance. 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.

The taking of the ISIS camp was a major advance but not the final defeat of the group in Baghouz, the last village held by the extremists where they have been holding out for weeks under siege, according to Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. Still, fighters from the force were starting to celebrate anyway.

"I'm happy it's over. Now I know my people are safe," said a fighter who identified himself as Walid Raqqawi who fought in the camp Monday night. He said he is returning to his hometown of Raqqa to rest. Comrades from his unit sang and danced in celebration at an outpost in Baghouz, all saying they were looking forward to going home.

The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their notorious propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. On Monday, ISIS issued a video showing its militants furiously defending the encampment, a junkyard of wrecked cards, motorcycles and tents. In the footage, they shoot nonstop with AK-47s and M-16s from behind trucks, vehicles and sand berms.

The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State group’s self-declared territorial “caliphate,” which at its height stretched across much of Syria and Iraq. For the past four years, U.S.-led forces have waged a destructive campaign to tear down the “caliphate.” But even after Baghouz’s fall, ISIS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten a continuing insurgency.

The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of ISIS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out, exhausted, hungry and often wounded. The sheer number who emerged — nearly 30,000 since early January according to Kurdish officials — took the Kurdish-led SDF by surprise.

In the last two weeks, many ISIS militants appeared to be among those evacuating. But SDF commanders have stopped speculating when the battle may finally be over. Commanders say they don’t know how many more may still be left, hiding in tunnels beneath the war-scarred village.

In the seizure Tuesday of the encampment, hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment, Bali, the SDF spokesman, said in a Twitter post. Still, he cautioned, "this is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight."

Commander Rustam Hasake told The Associated Press that SDF forces advanced on four fronts Monday night and were inside the camp when the last ISIS fighters surrendered at dawn. He said the last fighters were pushed out of the camp and were now in an open patch of land by the Euphrates River and were being processed and detained.

Five trucks hauling 10 trailers full of people were seen coming out of Baghouz. A child could be heard wailing from inside one of them. At least 100 people, nearly all of them children, have died in the truck trips from Baghouz on the way to a camp in northern Syria, or soon after reaching it, according to the International Rescue Committee — a sign of how miserable conditions were inside Baghouz during the siege as supplies ran out.

Bali, in a separate Twitter post Tuesday, said the SDF captured a group of suspects involved in a January suicide bombing that killed four Americans in the northern town of Manbij. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or whether they were among the most recent militants to surrender.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast outside a popular restaurant in Manbij, which killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. service members and two American civilians. It was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.

"We fired on them with our rifles and heavy weapons and they didn't shoot back. So we walked into the camp and they didn't shoot at us," said Orhan Hamad, from the northern province of Hassakeh.</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."</s>ERBIL, Iraq — American-backed forces in northern Syria have captured a group suspected of organizing a bomb attack that killed four Americans and a number of allied Syrian militia fighters in January, a spokesman for the local forces said on Tuesday.

The spokesman, Mustafa Bali, wrote on Twitter that his group, the Syrian Democratic Forces, had used “technical surveillance” to find and arrest the suspects.

The bombing, on Jan. 16, was the deadliest attack on Americans in Syria since Washington began a military campaign against the jihadists of the Islamic State in 2014, and it occurred in an area the United States had considered safe. Identifying those involved could help explain how the jihadists were able to strike far from their last stronghold.

The arrests were first reported by Reuters. A United States military official confirmed that Syrian allies had captured a small number of people linked to the attack in recent days but provided no further detail.</s>BAGHOUZ, Syria — U.S.-backed Syrian forces on Tuesday seized control of an encampment held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, after hundreds of militants surrendered overnight, a spokesman said, signaling the group’s collapse after months of stiff resistance. 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.

The taking of the IS camp was a major advance but not the final defeat of the group in Baghouz, the last village held by the extremists where they have been holding out for weeks under siege, according to Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. Still, fighters from the force were starting to celebrate anyway.

“I’m happy it’s over. Now I know my people are safe,” said a fighter who identified himself as Walid Raqqawi who fought in the camp Monday night. He said he is returning to his hometown of Raqqa to rest. Comrades from his unit sang and danced in celebration at an outpost in Baghouz, all saying they were looking forward to going home.

An unknown number of IS militants still clung to a tiny sliver of land trapped between the Euphrates River and the encampment now held by the SDF, officials in the force said.

The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their notorious propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. On Monday, IS issued a video showing its militants furiously defending the encampment, a junkyard of wrecked cards, motorcycles and tents. In the footage, they shoot nonstop with AK-47s and M-16s from behind trucks, vehicles and sand berms.

A group of children could be seen at one point amid the fighting.

“My Muslim brothers everywhere, we did our best, the rest is up to God,” a fighter says as black smoke rises from behind him.

The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State group’s self-declared territorial “caliphate,” which at its height stretched across much of Syria and Iraq. For the past four years, U.S.-led forces have waged a destructive campaign to tear down the “caliphate.” But even after Baghouz’s fall, IS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten a continuing insurgency.

The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks — and the encampment has proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels.

The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of IS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out, exhausted, hungry and often wounded. The sheer number who emerged — nearly 30,000 since early January according to Kurdish officials — took the Kurdish-led SDF by surprise.

In the last two weeks, many IS militants appeared to be among those evacuating. But SDF commanders have stopped speculating when the battle may finally be over. Commanders say they don’t know how many more may still be left, hiding in tunnels beneath the war-scarred village.

In the seizure Tuesday of the encampment, hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment, Bali, the SDF spokesman, said in a Twitter post. Still, he cautioned, “this is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight.”

There were conflicting reports from SDF commanders on the ground about the extent of the IS surrender.

Commander Rustam Hasake told The Associated Press that SDF forces advanced on four fronts Monday night and were inside the camp when the last IS fighters surrendered at dawn. He said the last fighters were pushed out of the camp and were now in an open patch of land by the Euphrates River and were being processed and detained.

Another commander, however, said some IS militants continue to hold a tiny area in an open patch of land in the village, outside the encampment.

AP journalists in Baghouz reported sporadic gunfire echoing in Baghouz and jets circling overhead. At a command post in Baghouz, a Humvee pulled up and unloaded weapons captured from IS on Tuesday, including sniper and hunting rifles, pump action shot guns and grenades and ammunition.

Five trucks hauling 10 trailers full of people were seen coming out of Baghouz. A child could be heard wailing from inside one of them. At least 100 people, nearly all of them children, have died in the truck trips from Baghouz on the way to a camp in northern Syria, or soon after reaching it, according to the International Rescue Committee — a sign of how miserable conditions were inside Baghouz during the siege as supplies ran out.

Bali, in a separate Twitter post Tuesday, said the SDF captured a group of suspects involved in a January suicide bombing that killed four Americans in the northern town of Manbij. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or whether they were among the most recent militants to surrender.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast outside a popular restaurant in Manbij, which killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. service members and two American civilians. It was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.

As they make their final stand, the IS militants have issued a string of statements this month claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on the SDF.

In an audio posted online Monday, the IS spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajer, issued his first message in six months, calling for revenge attacks by Muslims in Western countries in retaliation for the shooting attack on two New Zealand mosques that killed 50 people.

He also ridiculed U.S. declarations of the defeat of the Islamic State group, calling the claim of victory a “hallucination.”

But SDF fighters celebrated as if the final collapse were imminent. At the SDF outpost in Baghouz, a commander danced with his soldiers. Fighters said remaining IS militants didn’t put up much resistance.

“We fired on them with our rifles and heavy weapons and they didn’t shoot back. So we walked into the camp and they didn’t shoot at us,” said Orhan Hamad, from the northern province of Hassakeh.

“I tell the martyrs, it wasn’t for nothing. With God’s permission, we’ve finished Daesh.”

Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed reporting.
Syrian Democratic Forces declares progress in Syria after an ISIL camp on the outskirts of Baghuz is captured.