Tue Aug 30, 2016 12:04:43
More than half the population of the city of Manbij in Syria’s northern region of Aleppo have now returned home after Islamic State (ISIS / Daesh / ISIL / IS) militants were pushed out by a US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces offensive.
In Manbij, market shops and businesses have re-opened, and produce is entering the city following an end to the fighting.
Residents expressed their joy after living for months under siege, and said life is better now than when ISIS militants held the city.
Manbij was the ISIS group’s northern stronghold, important because of its position on a key supply route between the Turkish border and the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the ISIS terrorist group’s self-styled caliphate.
The fall of Manbij is the ISIS group’s biggest defeat in Syria since July 2015, when they lost the town of Tal Abyad on the border with Turkey.
S/SH 11
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