The Islamic State stronghold of Manbij, in northern Syria, has fallen to allied Arab and Kurdish fighters, who freed more than 2,000 hostages held by the terrorist group.
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The Syrian Democratic Forces – which are USA -backed – declared the city fully liberated from the terror group, saying they were “starting a new history after closing the book of darkness”.
Nasser Haj Mansour, of the predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces, said Manbij “is under full control”, but added that search operations were continuing to find any extremists who might be hiding in the city.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Gordon Trowbridge said ISIL “is clearly on the ropes”. They were heading northeast towards Jarablus, a town under DAESH control on the Turkish border. The Arab-Kurdish alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expelled most of the IS fighters from the town last week, but a small number remained.
In Aleppo city and the neighbouring countryside, air raids by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally, as well as shelling by the rebels left at least 51 civilians dead on Saturday, according to the Observatory.
Scenes of jubilation could be seen in many neighbourhoods of the city over the weekend, with men clipping their beards, women lifting their veils and people smoking in public.
Despite calls for a ceasefire and Russia’s promise of a three-hour daily respite from airstrikes to allow in aid, there has been no letup in the violence.
The capture of Manbij bolsters the position of Kurds who already control an uninterrupted 400 km (250 mile) stretch of Syria’s northern border with Turkey. Some may have gone to the “IS” held frontier town of Jarabulus.
The Britain-based Observatory also reported that several hundred of the civilians taken from Manbij were no longer being held by IS. It later released about 270 of them. IS has also booby-trapped cars and carried out suicide bombings to slow advances by their opponents. “For anything or using the excuse that he did not believe [in god], they put him and cut his head off”, the man said.
Colonel Chris Garver, a spokesperson for the US-led coalition, hailed the capture of Manbij as a “strategic loss” for the so-called Islamic State.
Tens of thousands of people lived in Manbij before the assault started.
The United Nations has said that more than 78,000 people have been displaced since then.
Civilians travel through Manbij under the protection of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The rebel forces were aided by US airstrikes.
In nearby Aleppo, a convoy of 40 lorries delivered almost 1,000 tons of food to the government-held west of the city, where an insurgent counteroffensive has cut the main supply route.
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Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011.
