Kurdish-led forces battling to capture last major stronghold of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Syria are making “slow and methodical” progress, the US-led coalition that backs them said on Tuesday. “The enemy is fully entrenched and ISIS fighters continue to conduct counter attacks,” said coalition spokesman Colonel Sean Ryan, adding it was “too early for a timetable” on when the operation might end, according to Reuters. Baghouz, a village on the east bank of the Euphrates at Syria’s border with Iraq, is the last territorial foothold of IS in the US-led coalition’s area of operations. It still holds land in central Syria in a remote desert area otherwise controlled by the government.