Manbij fell Friday to the Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces after continuous attacks and fighting over the last two months with the help of U.S led airstrikes. She had been trapped in her basement for a week with her two daughters and father after the Islamic State threatened to kill anyone who tried to escape the city.
Advertisement
“We’re inside Manbij after its liberation from IS … and taking civilians to secure places”, Nayruz Serekaniye said.
It has been said that the liberation of the Syrian city is important because of its location, as it will apparently cut off lines of communication with Raqqa, which is the self-declared capital of the Islamic State.
Jubilant women were seen tearing off their niqabs and burning them in the streets of Manbij after the northern Syrian town was liberated from the brutal rule of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). The battle for Aleppo, the second-largest city in Syria, has dragged on since 2012, and is among the fiercest of the Syrian civil war that has killed almost 400,000 people according to United Nations estimates.
Civil defense members were seen trying to put out numerous fires in the city.in a scene that has plagued the city and the country for more than five and a half years.
The capture of Manbij is the biggest defeat for the extremist group in Syria since July 2015, when they lost the town of Tal Abyad on the border with Turkey.
An image grab taken from an AFP video dated from August 12, 2016 shows Syrians walking on a street in al-Sirb neighbourhood in the northern Syrian town of Manbij as they go back to their homes after the Islamic State (IS) group withdrew from the area.Islamic State group fighters seized on August 12, 2016 around 2,000 civilians to use as “human shields” as they fled their stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria, US-backed forces and a monitor said.
Already, there has been a surge in attacks-either claimed or inspired by Islamic State-in several countries that are part of the USA -led global coalition fighting the extremist group in the Middle East.
SDF forces captured Manbij on Aug 6 but continued to battle pockets of jihadist resistance there.
Haj Mansour said some Islamic State fighters were captured in the town while others fled to nearby villages. It still controls significant areas- including Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul-, but for the last months the coalition against ISIS has made ISIS leave valuable possessions.
Germany’s foreign minister said it may be necessary for Germany, the U.S., Russian Federation and the United Nations to form an “air bridge” to get supplies to Aleppo’s residents. With U.S. air cover, SDF fighters moved on Manbij in May, as part of a strategy to expel extremists from their strongholds near the Turkish border.
Advertisement
Raja Abdulrahim contributed to this article.
