WASHINGTON (AP) — A spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition fighting the Islamic State group says an enormous amount of digital information has been obtained from IS locations in and around the Syrian city of Manbij.

U.S.-backed rebels are locked in protracted fights there for control of that city.

The spokesman, Col. Christopher Garver, says the intelligence is on portable data storage devices such as thumb drives. He says it amounts to more than four terabytes of digital information and sheds new light on how the Islamic State has used Manbij as a "strategic hub" for welcoming, training, indoctrinating and dispatching foreign fighters.

Garver said it's unclear how this trove of intelligence will affect the war.

He spoke to reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon in a telephone interview from Baghdad.