SDF forces conduct major evacuation from last ISIS holdout in Syria – report

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) evacuated over 40 truckloads of people from the last Syria redoubt of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) on Monday, as they sought to clear out civilians before a final push to crush the jihadists. The SDF have slowed down offensive on the final pocket due to the presence of civilians, with just a scrap of the IS “caliphate” remaining from a territory that once spanned Syria and Iraq. More than 46 trucks crammed with men, women and children, approached an SDF outpost, 20km north of the jihadist redoubt, AFP reported. The Kurdish-led SDF evacuated nearly 5,000 men, women and children from the jihadist redoubt on Wednesday and Friday, but none over the weekend.