Battle against IS in east Syria slows down

Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria say fighting to oust a hold-out pocket of IS fighters has slowed because the militants are using civilians as human shields.

The last piece of territory held by IS militants in Baghouz has been pounded by US-backed forces. Source: APP

Fighting against the Islamic State has slowed and a humanitarian passageway has been secured that allows civilians to leave a pocket of territory still held by the extremists in eastern Syria, the Kurdish-led forces say.

"Our fighters are continuing their battles with caution on all fronts but in a slow pace," Mustafa Bali, spokesman of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told dpa on Monday.

"At one front, the fighting has been halted to create a kind of a humanitarian passageway for the remaining civilians to leave the area or anyone who wants to surrender," Bali added.

Bali believed the civilians still in Baghuz are being used as human shields by the remaining Islamic State fighters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that hidden tunnels and land mines are delaying the advances of SDF, which launched its offensive to expel Islamic State militants from the village of Baghuz last month.

Baghuz, a village on the Euphrates River in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq, is the last significant territory remaining in the hands of Islamic State, which for years controlled wide swathes of both countries.

Some 9000 civilians were evacuated from the area of Baghuz in the past week, Kurdish officials said.

According to Kurdish commanders on the field between 1000 to 1500 Islamic State militants are estimated to be still in the area.

Syria's Kurds have played a major role in fighting Islamic State in war-torn Syria.