US-backed fighters make limited advances against IS in Syria

Tracer fire and explosions lights up the night sky as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fire on Baghouz, Syria, Sunday, March 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are positioned on the front line where Islamic State militants are making their last stand in Baghouz, Syria, Sunday, March 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

BAGHOUZ, Syria – A spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State group says they've made "limited advances" in the latest push on the last remaining area held by the extremists in Syria.

Mustafa Bali of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces says there were still IS militants in the besieged village of Baghouz on Monday, mainly hiding in underground tunnels.

The offensive on the last IS-held pocket in Syria's eastern Deir el-Zour province near the Iraqi border resumed on Sunday evening, after Bali said a deadline expired for IS gunmen in Baghouz to surrender.

He says warplanes struck ammunition belonging to the extremists.

Bali said that "if as we advance, we notice there are civilians, we will do all we can to evacuate them from the battlefield."