Syrian Kurdish officials and an activist group say 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.
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Meanwhile in the city of Manjib, the civilians are still getting used to their liberated lives again, enjoying all that was restricted and taken away under the rule of the Islamic Jihadists, according to Sky News.
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. “One SDF fighter entered a house on Friday and saw a shoe placed on a Quran”.
Since surrounding Manbij in early June, the SDF has been battling ISIS for control over the city’s districts.
Residents stand near a damaged building in Manbij.
The militants were finally ousted after a deal was reached on Friday that secured their departure together with some 2000 civilians, believed to have been their relatives, toward their stronghold of Jarablus near the border with Turkey, a Syrian from Manbij who is in touch with relatives there said.
It is not new for the Islamic State to resort to such measures whenever being forced away from a captured territory. 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.
The operation to liberate Manbij – which had been under Islamic State control for almost two years – began in May. Around 300 SDF fighters died, along with more than 1,000 jihadists, it said.
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.
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Washington has long lacked capable proxies on the ground, but has found its first strong allies in SDF. The rebel forces were aided by US airstrikes.
