The Islamic State stronghold of Manbij, in northern Syria, has fallen to allied Arab and Kurdish fighters, who freed more than 2,000 hostages held by the terrorist group.
A spokesman for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said they had taken over the city after the last Isis militants fled on Friday. According to the SDF and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the freed hostages had been used as “human shields”.
Sharfan Darwish, of the SDF-allied Manbij military council, told Reuters: “The city is now fully under our control but we are undertaking sweeping operations.”
The Pentagon deputy press secretary Gordon Trowbridge said: “Although fighting in Manbij continues, Isil is clearly on the ropes. It has lost the centre of Manbij, it has lost control of Manbij.”
The Arab-Kurdish alliance had expelled most of the Isis fighters from Manbij by last week but dozens continued to put up a tough resistance until Friday.
Meanwhile, Russian and Syrian jets pounded rebel positions in and around Aleppo, killing at least 20 people, a spokesman for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Saturday Germany’s foreign minister said aid was desperately needed in Aleppo and that it may be necessary to start an “air bridge” to bring it in.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Germany was in talks with the US, Russia and the United Nations to try to organise “urgent humanitarian assistance” to the northern city, particularly for medical supplies.
Despite calls for a ceasefire and Russia’s promise of a three-hour daily respite from airstrikes to allow in aid, there has been no letup in the violence.
Prior to their withdrawal from Manbij, the Isis fighters abandoned a northern neighbourhood, taking captives with them. They headed for the town of Jarabulus, along the border with Turkey, which their forces hold.
“While withdrawing from a district of Manbij, Daesh [Isis] jihadis abducted around 2,000 civilians from al-Sirb neighbourhood,” said Darwish. “They used these civilians as human shields as they withdrew to Jarabulus, thus preventing us from targeting them.”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources inside Syria to cover the war, gave a similar report, saying Isis forced about 2,000 civilians into cars it confiscated and headed for Jarabulus.
The jihadis, who have suffered a string of recent losses in Syria and Iraq, have often staged mass kidnappings in the two countries when they come under pressure to relinquish territory.
In January Isis abducted more than 400 civilians as it overran parts of Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria. It later released about 270 of them.
Isis has used civilians as human shields, booby-trapped cars and carried out suicide bombings to slow advances by their opponents and avoid coming under attack. Thousands of civilians were held captive by the group in Fallujah, which Iraqi forces recaptured in June after a four-week offensive.
On Friday the Site intelligence group said Isis had killed five men in Iraq for smuggling people out of territory it controls.
With air support from the US-led coalition, the SDF began its assault on Manbij on 31 May, surging into the town three weeks later. The offensive was slowed by a fightback by jihadis, before a big push last week saw the alliance seize 90% of the town.
Tens of thousands of people lived in Manbij before the assault started. The United Nations has said more than 78,000 people have been displaced since then.
Manbij was strategically significant because it was on Isis’s supply route from the Turkish border to Raqqa, the de facto capital of its self-styled Islamic “caliphate”.
The observatory said the battle for Manbij had claimed the lives of at least 437 civilians, 299 SDF fighters and 1,019 jihadis.
In Aleppo, the observatory said at least 20 people were killed on Friday in Syrian and Russian air raids on rebel positions. Twelve were killed in Hayyan, a small town 15km (10 miles) north of Aleppo, it said.
An AFP correspondent in the rebel-held east of the city said several neighbourhoods had been hit. The correspondent said people had been out on the streets to stock up on supplies after weeks of shortages caused by a punishing government siege.
Syria’s state news agency Sana, quoting a military source, said the warplanes destroyed several rebel positions and vehicles and killed “dozens of terrorists”. The observatory said clashes raged between rebels and pro-regime forces south of Aleppo.
Friday’s raids took place despite a pledge by Russia to observe a three-hour daily ceasefire in Aleppo to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries. An estimated 1.5 million people live in the city, including about 250,000 in rebel-held districts.
Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011. Since then more than 290,000 people have been killed and world powers have been drawn in on all sides of the war.
Additional reporting: Associated Press