Manbij freed

More than 2,000 civilians held captive by IS as human shields have been freed after militants were driven out of a key stronghold in Syria.

Colonel Chris Garver, a spokesperson for the US-led coalition, hailed the capture of Manbij as a “strategic loss” for the so-called Islamic State.

A man cuts the beard of a civilian; women run with newborn babies. Photo: Reuters

Jubilant scenes greeted the end of weeks of battles as men, women and children poured into streets now controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC).

Families ran through rubble-strewn streets, past the ruins of buildings destroyed in air strikes, carrying their babies and belongings.

A trickle of people became a flow of hundreds of civilians, followed by dozens of cars, lorries and vans packed with families finally freed from IS.

A woman adding her veil to a pile of niqabs burning in Manbij, Syria, after being freed from Isis on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Kurdish television showed men jubilantly having their beards cut off as women ripped off their veils and set them on fire.

The alliance of Arab and Kurdish rebels had driven most IS fighters out of the city by last week but a remaining band of jihadists continued to resist, capturing the 2,000 civilians as they withdrew from a suburb.

It was unclear under what conditions the civilians were freed, although the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an agreement was made between the SDF and IS using local mediators.

The joyful scenes were a welcome departure from months of siege, air strikes and battles to re-take the city, which was overrun by the terror outfit in January 2014. Photo: Reuters

The group said it had seen a letter from SDF forces threatening to push further into IS territory if militants did not agree to free the captured civilians in exchange for IS prisoners.

More than 1,000 IS fighters were killed in the offensive, according to the Observatory, as well as around 300 SDF fighters. Monitors recorded the deaths of at least 437 civilians, including 105 children, during the operation from 31 May to 12 August. The Observatory said 200 of those were killed in air strikes by the US-led coalition.

Manbij was being used as a IS hub for the lucrative trade of looted artefacts and other IS exports, due to the city's location near the Turkish border and on an intersection of major roads.

Manbij is expected to facilitate an advance on IS's de-facto Syrian capital of Raqqa, which lies 80 miles away.