Syrian civilians rejoice after being freed from IS control

BEIRUT — US-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.

Nasser Haj Mansour of the predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) told The Associated Press that the town of Manbij “is under full control,” adding that search operations are still ongoing to try to find any IS militants who might have stayed behind.

The SDF launched its offensive in late May to capture Manbij under the cover of US-led airstrikes. The town lies on a key supply route between the Turkish border and the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS group’s self-styled caliphate.

The retreat from the city, which IS captured in 2014, marked the jihadists’ worst defeat yet at the hands of the SDF.

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Fleeing jihadists took around 2,000 civilians, including women and children, on Friday to ward off air strikes as they headed to the IS-held frontier town of Jarabulus, according to the SDF.

At least some of the civilians were later released or escaped, the alliance said on Saturday, but the whereabouts of the rest was unknown.

Amateur videos posted online showed that shortly after SDF fighters captured the town late Friday, scores of residents went down to celebrate in the streets. Some men were seen clipping their beards with scissors while 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.

Exclusive footage from #Manbij, people fleeing #ISIL. pic.twitter.com/OQYRAlED1L

— Barzan Sadiq (@BarzanSadiq) August 13, 2016

“May God destroy them. They slaughtered us,” a young man shouted in a Manbij square. “May they not live for a minute.”

The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to Associated Press reporting of events.

In a photo posted online by Kurdish activists, a young woman defiantly uncovered her face while smoking a cigarette and flashing a victory sign.

Under the extremists’ reign, women had to wear long black cloaks that covered all but their eyes, while all adult men were forced to grow beards. Smoking was banned.

Haj Mansour said some IS fighters were captured in the town while others fled to nearby villages.

Freedom….and a long good drag with love from a fully liberated #Manbij. #Isis fully driven out. pic.twitter.com/t95aI1GNXm

— Hala Jaber (@HalaJaber) August 12, 2016

“Military operations will continue until these villages are clean,” Haj Mansour said.

Sherfan Darwish, another SDF official in Manbij, also confirmed that the town is under the full control of his fighters.

Booby-trapped houses

“The battle was very hard,” a Kurdish source told AFP.

“And the jihadists had laid mines” in the city.

“One SDF fighter entered a house on Friday and saw a shoe placed on a Koran. When he removed it there was an explosion and he was killed,” this source said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, reported that several hundred of the civilians taken from the city were no longer being held by IS.

“Among the civilians taken by IS there were people used as human shields but also many who chose voluntarily to leave the town due to fear of reprisals” by the SDF, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

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The SDF launched an assault in May on Manbij, on a key jihadist supply route between the Turkish border and IS’s de facto Syrian capital Raqa.

The jihadists, who have suffered a string of losses in Syria and Iraq, have often staged mass abductions when they come under pressure to relinquish territory they hold.

IS has also booby-trapped cars and carried out suicide bombings to slow advances by their opponents.

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.

SDF forces captured Manbij on August 6 but had continued to battle pockets of jihadists in parts of the town.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that with the capture of Manbij, hundreds of civilians that IS used as human shields are now free.

According to the Observatory, 437 civilians, including more than 100 children, were killed in the battle for Manbij and surrounding territory.

Around 300 SDF fighters died, along with more than 1,000 jihadists, it said.

Pentagon deputy press secretary Gordon Trowbridge said Friday that IS “is clearly on the ropes”.

“It has lost the center of Manbij, it has lost control of Manbij,” he said.

Since fighting for Manbij began, US-led strikes have taken out more than 50 of IS’s heavy weapons and destroyed more than 600 fortified fighting positions, Trowbridge said.

IS has suffered major defeats over the past months in Syria and Iraq, where the military recaptured the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in the western Anbar province. However, IS still controls large parts of Syria as well as Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul.