BEIRUT — U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led fighters captured the last town held by the Islamic State group on Friday, after days of intense battles in the militants' single remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists said.
The fall of Hajin is a blow to the extremists.
The town was their main stronghold in the last pocket of land they control in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting to take Hajin and the surrounding villages in Deir el-Zour province for over three months.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF took Hajin early in the morning, after fierce fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition.
It said some ISIS fighters withdrew to the villages and that fighting is still going in the fields outside Hajin as SDF fighters chase the extremists.
The area was home to some 15,000 people, including 2,000 ISIS gunmen who have been fighting back with counteroffensives and suicide attacks. »
