Thousands return to Manbij after IS militants flee city
Thousands of displaced residents streamed back into the northern Syrian town of Manbij on August 13 after US-backed fighters ousted the last Islamic State militants from their former stronghold, residents and US allies said.
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Hundreds of cars and vehicles carrying families and their belongings flocked into the city from makeshift camps and villages in the countryside, where many of the city's residents took shelter during the two-month campaign, according to an SDF official and relatives who were in contact with residents.
"Thousands are coming back and shops are opening. Today is the first day life is returning to normal," said Sharfan Darwish, spokesman for the SDF-allied Manbij Military Council told Reuters from the city, adding they were working to restore basic services.
Pro-SDF news sites showed jubilant families who had been trapped in the city during the fighting talking about how harsh life was under Islamic State and its imposition of strict dress codes in public.
Their footage showed men shaving their beards and veiled women setting fire to niqabs they were forced to wear in public that covered their entire face apart from the eyes.
The militants were finally ousted after a deal was reached on August 12 that secured their departure together with some 2,000 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 was not clear whether those leaving were hostages or had left voluntarily, a Kurdish source said.
The SDF, formed last year by recruiting Arabs to join forces with the powerful YPG Kurdish militia, launched an offensive with the support of US-led strikes at the end of May to remove Islamic State from areas it controls along the Turkish border.
