US-backed forces seize full control of Manbij from IS

US-backed forces have taken full control of the northern Syrian city of Manbij from the Islamic State, cutting off the militant group’s route to Europe.

Backed by US air strikes, the coalition of Kurdish and Arab militias fought 73 days to drive IS out of the Syrian city and said in a statement that they freed 2,000 civilians who were being used as human shields on the final day of fighting.

“The city is now fully under our control but we are undertaking sweeping operations,” Sharfan Darwish of the SDF allied Manhil Military Council told Reuters, adding that military sleeper cells in the city were still a threat.

Syrian

The SDF's offensive, which started at the end of May, aims to remove IS from areas it controls along the Turkish border.

The Manbij operation marks the most ambitious advance by a group allied to the US in Syria since the United States launched its military campaign against IS back in 2014.

Manbij’s loss will be a big blow to IS, as it had served as a conduit for the transit of foreign jihadis and provisions coming from the Turkish border.

Darwish said earlier that around 100 IS fighters were left in the city centre using civilians as human shields, some of whom were killed trying to flee.

The SDF's campaign quickly captured the countryside surrounding Manbij, but slowed once fighting entered the city. It said it had been avoiding a large-scale assault inside Manbij out of concern for civilians.

Dozens of civilians, including children and women from Manbij, were killed in suspected U.S. coalition air strikes last month.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's five-year-old conflict, later said that around 500 cars had left Manbij carrying IS members and civilians. They were reportedly heading northeast towards Jarablus, a town under IS control on the Turkish border.

The Observatory said that the convoy carrying the final IS members had left the city under an agreement between the fighting parties that it would not be announced officially.

U.S. officials have said that once the Manbij operation is completed, it would create the conditions to march on IS’ de facto capital of Raqqa.