The battle to claim the last pocket of territory from the Islamic State group (IS) is being held up because thousands of civilians remain trapped there. US-backed Kurdish forces launched an assault on Baghuz, on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border, last week. US President Donald Trump said on Friday the defeat of IS would be announced "over the next 24 hours". But those 24 hours passed on Saturday with no announcement from the White House on the defeat of IS. Instead, Kurdish fighters said the news was likely to emerge "in the coming few days" as civilians continued to flee. What's the latest?Jiya Furat, the leader of the battle for Baghuz for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said IS fighters were now trapped in a 700 sq metre section of the town. "Thousands of civilians are still trapped there as human shields," he said on Saturday. "In the coming few days, in a very short time, we will spread the good tidings to the world of the military end of Daesh [IS]." SDF spokesman Adnan Afrin told Agence France-Presse they were surprised to learn how many civilians were still inside. The SDF had to slow its approach as a result, he said. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 440 IS fighters had surrendered over the past few days, but the SDF believes a few hundred remain trapped in Baghuz. The Observatory said efforts were under way to find IS fighters hiding in tunnels they had dug around Baghuz. AFP.