BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of displaced residents streamed back into the northern Syrian town of Manbij on Saturday after U.S.-backed fighters ousted the last Islamic State militants from their former stronghold, residents and U.S. allies said. The U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Friday they had seized full control of the city near the Turkish border after the departure of the last of the militants, who had been using civilians as human shields. Pro-SDF news sites showed jubilant families who had been trapped in the city during the fighting talking about how harsh life was under Islamic State and its imposition of strict dress codes in public. Darwish attributed the speedy return to life in the city to a military and aerial campaign that he said spared many neighbourhoods where thousands of civilians had remained even at the height of fighting. The capture of Manbij bolsters the position of Kurds who already control an uninterrupted 400 km (250 mile) stretch of Syria's northern border with Turkey.

Source: The Star August 13, 2016 18:11 UTC