Near IS holdout, Syrian fighters face women suicide bombers 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. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES