Combatants from the Manbij Military Council (MMC) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have surrounded the ISIS-occupied city of Manbij as the Operation Commander Martyr Abu Layla continues in its 11th day. The local residents are leaving the city in groups and they are being transferred to safe areas by MMC and SDF fighters.

Manbij residents who are being transferred to the areas recently liberated during the operation spoke to ANF and voiced happiness over the arrival of operational forces to save them from the atrocity of the ISIS gangs.

Civilians from Manbij stated that ISIS gangs used them as human shields because they knew how sensitive fighters of the Manbij Military Council and SDF forces are regarding the civilians and their security of life.

Civilians said ISIS gangs had previously managed to flee from the villages of Manbij by resorting to the same method, and they complained that locals in the region under ISIS occupation have suffered repression, cruelty, pillaging, torture and massacre since the city was seized by the gangs in 2014.

Locals said they were also imposed so-called religious rules and laws by force, repression and torture since the occupation of their land by the ISIS gangs.

Women from Manbij also suffered a particular torture at the hands of the ISIS, with young girls aged between 9 and 16 being forced into marriage with gang members.

ISIS gangs furthermore closed the schools in the Manbij city and subjected children to so-called sharia and jihad lessons with the goal of using them in their actions in the future.