After the Caliphate: Has IS Been Defeated? – BBC News
President Donald Trump expects to announce soon that the United States and its partners have reclaimed the last pocket of territory in Syria controlled by the jihadist group Islamic State, bringing a formal end to the "caliphate" it proclaimed in 2014.
IS once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq, imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people, and generated billions of dollars in revenue from oil, extortion, robbery and kidnapping.
Now, between 1,000 and 1,500 militants are believed to be left in a 50 sq km (20 sq mile) area in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, near Syria's border with Iraq, which is under attack by fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance…