DEIR Al-ZOR PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) - The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expect the battle to take Islamic State’s last territorial enclave to be over “soon”, the head of the SDF media office Mustafa Bali said on Saturday.

The SDF began a final assault to capture the enclave at Baghouz on Thursday, aiming to wipe out the last vestige of territorial rule that once spanned a third of Syria and Iraq.