USA -backed fighters have seized a key Islamic State stronghold in northern Syria after two months of heavy fighting and freed hundreds of civilians the extremists had used as human shields, Syrian Kurdish officials and an opposition activist group said Saturday.
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Manbij Military Council is made up of fighters who were forced out of the now liberated Syrian city by the Islamic State, who formed in April of this year and collaborated with several other militant groups to come back and free the city. According to the SDF and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the freed hostages had been used as “human shields”.
But Trowbridge noted that there were “still pockets of opposition” in the Manbij’s north, but that ISIS was “clearly on the ropes”. “The city is now under our full control”, said a senior level rebel official.
The battle for Manbij lasted 73 days, displacing almost 100,000 civilians and left more than 400 dead.
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper Saturday of ongoing talks to do so, adding that “if both parts of Aleppo continue not to receive sufficient humanitarian supplies, we should also consider the possibility of assistance by air, especially medical goods”.
Kurdish control of Manbij would certainly hurt relations with the USA -led coalition as there is some remote involvement with Turkey as they border the newly liberated city, who have a rocky relationship with the Kurds.
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.
“We’re inside Manbij after its liberation from IS … and taking civilians to secure places”, Nayruz Serekaniye said.
Last week, the Libyan city of Sirte – held by ISIS for more than a year – fell to pro-government militiamen, and the militants lost the headquarters from which they had ruled more than 240km of Libyan coastline.
The IS, which has suffered a string of losses in Syria and Iraq, has often staged mass abductions when it comes under pressure to relinquish territory it holds.
At least 400 civilians were reported to have been killed in the fighting, including more than 100 children. It later released about 270 of them.
A man pointed to an outside area and described it as an ISIS execution site.
The SDF’s offensive, which includes support from a USA -led coalition, began at the end of May, and aims to remove the Islamic State from areas it controls along the Turkish border. The offensive was slowed by a fightback by jihadis, before a big push last week saw the alliance seize 90% of the town.
The United Nations estimates more than 400,000 people have been killed, majority civilians, since fighting first erupted near Damascus in 2011.
Manbij was a strategically important link in supply lines to Islamic State’s headquarters in Syria in Raqqa. “People are driving their cars in the streets, hailing the SDF”, Mr. Araj said.
Already, there has been a surge in attacks-either claimed or inspired by Islamic State-in several countries that are part of the US -led global coalition fighting the extremist group in the Middle East.
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.
