BAGHOUZ, Syria -- A U.S.-backed force in Syria is closing in on Islamic State militants in an area less than 1 square mile in eastern Syria, and it soon will declare the defeat of the militants, a commander with the group said Saturday.
The capture of the last pocket still held by Islamic State fighters in the village of Baghouz would mark the end of a devastating four-year global campaign to end the extremist group's hold on territory in Syria and Iraq -- its so-called caliphate that at the height of the group's power in 2014 controlled nearly a third of both Iraq and Syria.
"We will very soon bring good news to the whole world," said Ciya Furat, a commander with the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, speaking at a news conference at the al-Omar oil field base in Deir el-Zour province.
President Donald Trump said the White House would make an announcement about Syria and the fight against the Islamic State by the end of Saturday.
The White House had not made any announcements as of late Saturday night, but the president in a pair of tweets said the U.S. was "pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory" and urged European allies to put on trial hundreds of Islamic State fighters who have been captured in the battle.
"The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them," he tweeted.
"The U.S. does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go. We do so much, and spend so much - Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing. We are pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory!" he wrote.
The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group blasted Trump on Saturday ahead of his expected declaration of victory against the Islamic State group.
Hassan Nasrallah said that had it not been for the U.S., Syrian government forces, supported by Hezbollah fighters on the ground, would have defeated the extremists a long time ago.
Nasrallah said the victory declaration against the Islamic State will be made by "the biggest hypocrite in the world. American President Donald Trump."
An Associated Press team in Baghouz, hundreds of yards away from the last speck of land where Islamic State militants were holed up, saw several aircraft overhead and two airstrikes hit the area on Saturday that Syrian Democratic Forces fighters said were fired by the U.S.-led coalition.
The Syrian Democratic Forces declared the final push to capture the village a week ago after more than 20,000 civilians, many of them the wives and families of foreign fighters, were evacuated.
Commanders have since said they have been surprised to discover that there were hundreds more civilians in the enclave, after they were ushered up by the militants from underground tunnels. Their presence has slowed the Syrian Democratic Forces' advance.
Furat said Islamic State fighters were besieged in an area that is about 840 square yards. He said that Syrian Democratic Forces fighters were able to liberate 10 of their colleagues who were held by the militants.
Furat's comments were carried by Kurdish news agencies, including Hawar News.
"We are dealing with this small pocket with patience and caution. It is militarily fallen but civilians are used as human shields," Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Mustafa Bali said. Bali added that the force believes that Islamic State gunmen also are holding previously kidnapped Syrians in the area.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said Syrian Democratic Forces fighters were almost in full control of the area once controlled by extremists, adding that there might still be Islamic State fighters hiding in a network of tunnels.
The Observatory said that some 200 Islamic State gunmen surrendered Friday, days after about 240 others surrendered and were taken by Syrian Democratic Forces fighters and members of the U.S.-led coalition.
Despite the expected defeat on the ground, activists and residents say the Islamic State still has sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq and is laying the groundwork for an insurgency. The group has claimed responsibility in recent months for deadly attacks, mostly in Iraq, more than a year after the Iraqi government said the extremists have been defeated after losing the northern city of Mosul in 2017, the largest they held.
APPEAL TO NATO
A U.S. appeal for NATO allies to fill the void left by its imminent withdrawal from Syria was dismissed Saturday by Spain's foreign minister, still bristling at Trump's unilateral decision to pull his troops out.
Vice President Mike Pence told reporters at the Munich Security Conference that the U.S. is asking NATO members and other partners to provide "the resources and the support and the personnel" required to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State militants once U.S. operations conclude.
"Requests between countries aren't made in press releases or conference comments," Spain's Josep Borrell said at a briefing Saturday in Munich. "Spain and the majority of countries aren't prepared to step in for the U.S. after a withdrawal that was decided in a unilateral way, by surprise."
Trump has pledged to bring home U.S. troops from Syria with the Islamic State nearly defeated. Trump, in his State of the Union address, reiterated his commitment to end the U.S. presence in Syria, saying that "great nations do not fight endless wars."
Since Trump abruptly announced he was bringing home the troops, he and his top advisers have sought to establish specific conditions for the withdrawal. They've promised to depart from Syria slowly and to continue to strike the Islamic State on the way out.
At the Munich Security Conference, Pence addressed the U.S. fight against the Islamic State and the decision to pull troops from Syria.
"This is a change in tactics, not a change in mission," Pence said at a talk Saturday. "The United States will keep a strong presence in the region. We recognize it will not be enough to simply reclaim the territory of the caliphate. As we enter this new phase, the United States will continue to work with all of our allies to hunt down the remnants of ISIS wherever and whenever they rear their ugly head."
Information for this article was contributed by Sarah El Deeb, Bassem Mroue and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Glen Carey and Ben Sills of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 02/17/2019