It was a celebration galore in the ‘war torn’ Syrian city of Manbij on Friday after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) drove jihadists under the auspices of Islamic States (ISIS) from the city.
Ecstatic jubilation engulfed the northern Syrian city as women were seen ripping off their burqas, burning them and smoking, while men cut off their beards as they all rejoiced at their newly obtained freedom from the ferocious Islamic death cult, ISIS.
Women carrying their newborn babies in celebration to freedom from an Islamic State-controlled neighbourhood of Manbij © Rodi Said / Reuters
It was gathered that quite a number of families ran through rubble-strewn streets, past the ruins of buildings destroyed in air strikes, carrying their babies and belongings in celebration to freedom.
An elderly woman was seen enjoying a cigarette – an act banned under ISIS and punished by flogging and even death in some of its territories.
It was also reported that the last remaining ISIS fighters abandoned Manbij near the Turkish border on Friday after a rout that the Pentagon said showed the extremists were “on the ropes”.
A female soldier helps civilians who were evacuated by the SDF from an Islamic State-controlled neighbourhood of Manbij © Rodi Said / Reuters
The retreat from the city, which ISIS captured in 2014, marked the jihadists’ worst defeat yet at the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish alliance supported by US air strikes.
During this assault, they rescued some 2,000 civilians who had been abducted by the jihadists as they were being driven out of Manjib to be used as “human shields.”
A man cuts the beard of a civilian who was evacuated with others by the Syria Democratic Forces fighters from an Islamic State-controlled neighbourhood of Manbij. (Reuters Photo)
Citing a source from the Syrian army, AFP news agency reported that, while some of the abducted residents were able to escape themselves, some, surprisingly, “were freed” by the fleeing terrorists.
“It was complicated for us to save civilians from the area, but we did it. Terrorists are now fleeing. We will go after them no matter where they are heading to,” said one of the female soldiers with the YPJ, which contributed greatly to the liberation of the city, to Reuters.
