Last bastion of IS to head off to Syria, declares Trump

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the Islamic State's last bastion in Syria will be "gone" by the end of the day. He showed off maps that illustrate the dramatic shrinking of territory held by the jihadist group in the period from his election in 2016 and now.

In one map shown by Trump to reporters in Washington and then again at a rally to factory workers in Lima, Ohio, IS territory marked in red extends over large areas. A second map, he said, shows the jihadist organization about to be wiped out. "There is no red. In fact, there's actually a tiny spot which will be gone by tonight," he said.

Fighting continued in Baghouz, Syria, on Wednesday, but the IS jihadists are down to a tiny scrap of land, where they are surrounded and under heavy fire from a US-led coalition of Kurds, Syrians and others.