58,000 people leave last IS redoubt in eastern Syria in 3 months

DAMASCUS, March 6 (Xinhua) -- As many as 58,000 people, including ISlamic State (IS) militants, have evacuated the last group's stronghold in eastern Syria over the past three months, a war monitor reported on Wednesday.

Some 6,000 IS militants are among those who left the last IS-held areas in the eastern Euphrates River region in eastern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based watchdog group said the preparations are underway to declare the defeat of IS in the Baghouz farmlands, the last IS-held areas in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour province.

Earlier in the day, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported that as many as 3,500 people, including IS militants, have surrendered to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) over the past two days in eastern Syria.

The IS militants and their family members left the farmlands of the town of Baghouz in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour province for areas controlled by the SDF, the report said.

They were later taken to the KurdISh-controlled al-Hol camp in the northeastern province of Hasakah.

The KurdISh-led SDF with the backing of the U.S.-led coalition has launched a crushing offensive to eliminate the IS from the eastern Euphrates River region in eastern Syria since September last year.

The IS militants are now besieged in an area less than 2 square km in the farmlands of Baghouz.

The report said dozens of IS commanders have reached the TurkISh border area and the Iraqi Anbar region.

People in the al-Hol camp are living in tough humanitarian condition, with the report placing the number of those who died in the camp over the past two months at more than 40 as a result of lack of medicine and healthcare.