Around 200 ISIS militants surrender from group's last enclave in Syria

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday it had evacuated about 3,000 people, including around 200 Islamic State militants, from the group's last enclave in eastern Syria.

The new exodus came only three days after the Kurdish-led SDF resumed military operations against the militants holed up in Baghouz, a village on the banks of the Euphrates River close to the Iraqi border. 

In past weeks, thousands of civilians left the speck of territory in organized evacuations following an earlier halt in fighting. The SDF said its fighters were surprised by the number of civilians, who include ISIS family members, cooped up in the small area that has been squeezed smaller and smaller by intermittent military offensives. 

The militants, their families and other civilians are believed to have used tunnels, caves and holes to hide from airstrikes and missiles by the U.S.-led coalition and the SDF. The SDF said the militants are using civilians as human shields.

An SDF media official who goes by his nom de guerre Ciyager said over 1,000 people, including a number of fighters, evacuated the area controlled by ISIS on Monday through a safe passage that has allowed those wishing to exit a way out. Dozens of men, women and children climbed hills on foot and were later seen getting into small trucks after they were searched by SDF fighters manning the evacuation corridor. 

Thousands leave ISIS pocket

The evacuees included a man who said he was French, men and women from Indonesia, Turkey, Bosnia and many Syrians and Iraqis. 

Since Feb. 20, an estimated 15,000 people have left the ISIS-held pocket, producing dramatic scenes of women shrouded in black and many children climbing off trucks into a desert area to be screened and searched. They were then whisked to a camp for displaced people to the north, while suspected fighters were moved to detention facilities.

Military operations restarted Friday, with a ground advance a day later that followed a spectacular air assault that lit the skies of the tiny village. ISIS militants desperately fought back with snipers, car bombs and other weapons trying to slow the SDF advance. 

Some fighters remain

Lewla Abdullah, an SDF official, said at least three car bombs had been deployed in the campaign, and at least four SDF fighters and more than 100 ISIS fighters were killed since Friday. She said ISIS was holding civilians and others hostage. 

An SDF official, who goes by the name Mervan The Brave, said many ISIS gunmen were still inside and prepared to fight. 

"This is not the end. We are maybe on the threshold of a new battle," he said.

Mostafa Bali, head of the SDF media office, told Reuters that about 1,000 militants may still be inside Baghouz as well as additional civilians, which is holding up the battle to retake the village. 

The extremist group continues to be a threat, however, with sleeper cells in scattered desert pockets along the porous border between the two countries.