About 2,000 Islamic State (a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) fighters are estimated to remain in the Syrian city of Raqqa, fighting for their survival in the face of an offensive by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Reuters reported on Friday, according to a senior U.S. official.
Brett McGurk, U.S. special envoy for the coalition against ISIS, said that SDF had cleared about 45 percent of Raqqa since launching the attack in early June to seize Islamic State's stronghold in northern Syria.
"Today in Raqqa ISIS is fighting for every last block ... and fighting for their own survival" McGurk told reporters.
Some 2,000 ISIS fighters are left in the city and "most likely, will die in Raqqa," he said.
The assault on Raqqa coincided with the final stages of a campaign to drive ISIS from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where the Islamist militants were defeated last month.
McGurk said that ISIS has lost 27,000 square miles (70,000 sq km) of the territory it once held in the two countries - 78 percent of what they had seized in Iraq and 58 percent of what they held in Syria.
Before every military operation, coalition forces surround the area targeted to make sure Islamic State's foreign fighters cannot escape and make their way out of Iraq and Syria, he said.
With the close cooperation of Turkish forces, the entire Syrian-Turkish border was sealed and ISIS can no longer send militants trained in Syria for attacks in Europe and elsewhere, McGurk said.
Coalition has compiled a database of almost 19,000 names of ISIS fighters gathered from cellphones, address books and other documents found on battlefields, which is being shared with the international police agency Interpol, he said.
ISIS is also fighting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias.
McGurk said "deconfliction" arrangements, made by the U.S. and Russian militaries to avoid accidents as they operate separately in Syria, were working well despite deteriorating diplomatic relations between two countries.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that U.S.-Russian relationship was at "an all-time and very dangerous low," to which Russia replied as stating that new sanctions imposed by Washington meant an end to hopes for better ties with the Trump administration.
"So far we have not seen an effect on our engagement with the Russians when it comes to Syria," McGurk added.