Life seems to gradually return-to-normal in the city of Manbij, as residents resume their daily activities after months of besiegement by the Islamic State. The US-backed Syria Democratic Forces announced over the weekend that they had seized full control of the strategic city, located near the Turkish border, after the departure of the last of the Islamic State militants, who reportedly used civilians as human shields.
One of the city’s residents, Ibrahim Mahmoud, said people were starved and had been targeted by snipers under Islamic State rule: “Da’esh (Islamic State) used to target us with snipers when we were besieged here in Manbij. They starved us, we have nothing left in the city, nothing to eat, not even have bread. We had a famine here in Manbij,” elaborated Mahmoud. An intelligence officer told TV7 that the loss of Manbij was a heavy blow to the Islamic State, as the extreme Muslim group used the city for the transit of foreign fighters and provisions from the Turkish border.