They were heading northeast towards Jarablus, a town under DAESH control on the Turkish border.
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An image grab taken from an AFP video dated from August 12, 2016 shows a school that was used by Islamic State (IS) group’s fighters to manufacture explosives in the northern Syrian town of Manbij, nearly a week after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Arab and Kurd fighters, seized the group’s stronghold.
Terror group Daesh has freed hundreds of civilians used by the jihadists as human shields while retreating in northern Syria, US-backed forces and amonitor said on Saturday.
This image posted online on Monday, July.
Kurdish television showed jubilant civilians in Manbij, including smiling mothers who had shed their veils and women embracing Kurdish fighters. The Arabic caption on the photo reads, “Trgeting gatherings of Kurdish infidels with 14.5 millimeter machinegun in northern countryside of Manbij”. But Moscow has accused the USA and Saudi Arabia of supplying cash and weapons to anti-Assad forces, which it said includes fighters from an al-Qaida offshoot.
The Islamic State group has repeatedly used civilians as human shields, booby-trapped cars and carried out suicide bombings to slow advances by their opponents and avoid coming under attack. The last remaining IS fighters abandoned Manbij near the Turkish border on Friday after a rout that the Pentagon said showed the extremists were “on the ropes”.
The town of Manbij “is under full control”, said Nasser Haj Mansour, of the predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces, adding that operations are continuing to search for any ISIL militants who might have stayed behind.
The SDF launched its offensive in late May to capture Manbij, and was supported by USA -led airstrikes.
Amateur videos showed that shortly after SDF fighters captured the town late on Friday, scores of residents went out to celebrate in the streets. Women were able to uncover their faces.
IS imposes a harsh and extreme version of Islam on the territory under its control, including a mandatory dress code.
“May God destroy them”.
A former resident of the city said he had reports from family members that the Kurdish YPG, who are the dominant group within the SDF, had rounded up dozens of young men before screening them because of concerns that some of them belonged to sleeper cells. “May they not live for a minute”.
SDF forces captured Manbij on Aug 6 but continued to battle pockets of jihadist resistance there.
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Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that several hundred of the civilians taken from Manbij were no longer being held. During the offensive, the SDF had offered fighters a safe route to leave the town but they refused.
