Baghouz (Syria) (AFP) - Driving towards the frontline of what remains of the Islamic State group's self-declared "caliphate" in eastern Syria, US-backed fighters pass huge craters from air strikes and buildings reduced to rubble.
Backed by air strikes of the US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are battling to expel IS from a few hamlets in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
But cornered in a final remote pocket of territory near the Iraqi border, the jihadists are staging a fierce fightback, hiding in tunnels and deploying suicide bombers -- including women.
Listening to Egyptian diva Umm Kulthum, SDF fighters drive along a desert road towards a string of villages retaken in recent weeks from the jihadists.
"The Islamic State has surrendered," reads graffiti scrawled across the wall of a small house at the entrance to the deserted village of Shaafa.
Nearby, a cart once used to sell fruit and vegetables lies abandoned.
The armoured car continues southwards, to where the Kurdish-led SDF is battling to secure the last patch of the village of Baghouz from the jihadists.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights this week said the village had been retaken, but SDF commanders on the ground say some IS fighters still remain, and are fighting back hard.
"Two women blew themselves up near our position," an SDF official tells AFP.
"We saw them come towards us dressed in black. They cried 'God is greatest' and then blew themselves up," he says, giving his name as Damat.
- 'Cornered' -
Aram Jaweesh, a commander in the SDF, says five women blew themselves up in various parts of Baghouz on Saturday, killing one SDF member and wounding three others.
IS suicide bombers are usually men, but some women have carried out such operations in Iraq.
From a rooftop, Jaweesh oversees operations, issuing instructions to his fighters in Kurdish through a walkie-talkie that never leaves his side.
A few streets away, armoured cars from the international coalition rumble by.
SDF advances in recent weeks have whittled away at the last pocket of Syrian territory the group controls, and Jaweesh says the noose is tightening around IS.
"They're cornered between the Iraqi border on one side and the SDF on the other," he
Thank you president Trump, the final death throws of the caliphate are sweet indeed.