Celebrations broke out in the Syrian city of Manbij over the weekend after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters, said they were in control of the entire city, which had been held by Islamic State since 2014.
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The women ripped off their black burqas and smoked cigarettes, while men cut their beards and flashed the peace sign, according to The Telegraph.
Meanwhile another group of youngsters can been dancing around a burqa that has been discarded on the ground and left to burn.
Speaking to news agency Reuters, a resident of Manbij told of the place he had seen people beheaded by IS.
He added that the USA was also aware of the historic sensitivities of the Iraqi government and local Arabs in the city and that it took those concerns into account.
‘Thousands are coming back and shops are opening.
“The city is now fully under our control but we are undertaking sweeping operations”, Sharfan Darwish of the SDF allied Manhil Military Council told Reuters, adding that military sleeper cells in the city were still a threat.
During their rule, IS jihadists imposed a hardline version of Islam, mandating strict social restrictions on Manbij’s residents.
Weeping with joy, civilians hug fighters from the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) after being evacuated from the final IS-held neighbourhood.
Losing control of the city is a major blow to IS – foreign jihadists, as well as provisions, moved through the area from the Turkish border.
US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters advance into the Islamic State group bastion of Manbij, in northern Syria, in June 2016.
Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that several hundred of the civilians taken from Manbij were no longer being held.
Syrian rebel fighters have accused the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group of taking more than 2,000 people hostage, and using them as human shields, as they retreated from the northern city of Manbij.
SDF forces captured Manbij on August 6 but continued to battle pockets of extremist resistance there. “It has lost the center of Manbij, it has lost control of Manbij”, Pentagon deputy press secretary Gordon Trowbridge said, using another name for the group.
Some IS fighters were captured in the town while others fled to nearby villages, said Haj Mansour.
Manbij controlled one of just two crossings to Turkey from Syria, and its fall will probably deprive the extremists of that route.
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Since May 21, the SDF has liberated more than 1,000 square kilometers of territory from ISIS and taken out more than 600 fortified fighting positions, Trowbridge said.
