Isis defeated, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announce

Kurdish-led group says last of militants cleared from stronghold of Baghuz

After almost five years, the battle to dismantle Islamic State's brutal "caliphate" has ended with an announcement from US-backed forces that the militants have been driven out of their last stronghold of Baghuz, deep in the Syrian desert.

Isis had held out for months against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the small oasis town on the Euphrates river, clinging on to an area of land less than 700 sq metres wide despite fierce coalition bombing. But on Saturday an SDF spokesman, Mustafa Bali, tweeted that the town had been liberated.