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.
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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.
