U.S.-backed fighters are moving slowly into Islamic State's final pocket in eastern Syria to avoid losses in the face of sniper fire and land mines, a commander said on Monday.
Warplanes flew above Baghouz, a cluster of houses on the banks of the Euphrates at the Iraqi border where Islamic State fighters still hold out, and smoke rose from the area along with the sound of intermittent clashes.
The defeat of Islamic State at Baghouz will mark a milestone in the campaign against the jihadi group, ending its control of populated territory in the area straddling Iraq and Syria where it suddenly expanded in 2014 and declared a caliphate.