US-backed forces evacuated over 40 truckloads of people from the Islamic State group’s last Syria redoubt on Monday, as they sought to clear out civilians before a final push to crush the jihadists. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have slowed down their 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. An AFP correspondent saw more than 46 trucks crammed with men, women and children, approaching an SDF outpost, 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the jihadist redoubt.
