Syrians celebrate defeat of ISIS in Manbij, recount horrors of executions
City near Turkish border served as conduit for ISIS supplies
Residents of the Syrian city of Manbij were celebrating today after rebel fighters freed about 2,000 hostages and drove out the last ISIS fighters, who had reportedly been using civilians as human shields.
In an offensive that took 73 days, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters, with the help of U.S. airstrikes, took control of the city just south of the Turkish border on Friday.
The militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it held off on conducting widespread assaults within the city and instead worked to clear Manbji house by house because of the hostages.
At least 400 civilians were reported to have been killed in the fighting, including more than 100 children.
In addition, the SDF lost nearly 300 of its fighters, while more than 1,000 jihadists were killed.
Kurdish sources and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's five-year-old war, said around 500 cars had left Manbij carrying Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) members and an unknown number of civilians.
They were heading northeast toward Jarablus, a town under ISIS control on the Turkish border, the Observatory said.
Sharfan Darwish, a spokesperson with the SDF-allied Manbij Military Council, said roughly 100 ISIS fighters were
left in the city centre, using civilians as human shields, some of whom were killed trying to flee.
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Some locals recounted the horrors of ISIS rule, showing journalists areas dedicated to corporal punishment.
One unidentified man pointed to an area referred to as the "Ship Circle," reserved for executions.
"Here, they used to execute people and hung their heads here and leave it for three days," he told Reuters. "This is the Ship Circle and at each circle they put a cross."
"They are not related to religion and we all lived with Islam," he added.
Manbij's loss is a big blow for the militants as it is of strategic importance, serving as a conduit for the transit of foreign jihadists and provisions coming from the Turkish border.
The U.S. says the capture sets conditions to move on to Raqqa, the de facto capital for ISIS, now cut off from receiving supplies from Manbij.
Nasser Haj Mansour, of the predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces, said Manbij "is under full control," but added that search operations were continuing to find any extremists who might be hiding in the city.
With files from Reuters and The Associated Press