Assault on last IS pocket in Syria has started: Syrian Democratic Forces

Kurdish-led forces launched a final assault Friday on the last pocket held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, their spokesman said.

The "operation to clear the last remaining pocket of ISIS has just started", Mustefa Bali, the spokesman of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, said in a statement using an acronym for the jihadist group.

The US-led forces on Friday extracted more people from the ruins of the Islamic State group's "caliphate" and geared up for a final assault against jihadists hunkered down for a desperate last stand.

Diehard IS fighters and their families remained holed up in the last pocket, despite US President Donald Trump's claims that 100 per cent of the territory was retaken.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) evacuated six truckloads of people on Friday from Baghouz, a hamlet by the Euphrates where the "caliphate" looks set to peter out.