BEIRUT // Arab and Kurdish Syrian forces backed by the United States have given ISIL fighters 48 hours to leave the surrounded town of Manbij in northern Syria.
“To protect civilian lives and property and to protect the town from destruction, we announce that we accept the initiative under which besieged ISIL members would leave with their individual light weapons,” said the Manbij Military Council, a member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition that is fighting against ISIL for the town.
The ultimatum comes amid rising concern about civilian casualties following deadly US-led air strikes in support of the SDF forces around Manbij.
At least 56 people, including children, were killed in air strikes on the nearby village of Al Tukhar on Tuesday, a day after the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 21 civilian deaths in strikes on a northern district of Manbij.
Tuesday’s strikes prompted Syria’s main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, to call for a halt to air operations against ISIL while an investigation was conducted.
“It is essential that such an investigation not only result in revised rules of procedure for future operations, but also inform accountability for those responsible for such major violations,” Anas Al Abdah, the head of the group, wrote in a letter to foreign ministers of the anti-ISIL coalition on Thursday.
He also warned that civilian casualties would “prove to be a recruitment tool for terrorist organisations”.
Mr Al Abdah said 125 civilians had been killed in US-led strikes around Manbij, characterising the strikes as crimes.
The US secretary of defence Ash Carter has promised a transparent investigation into “any possible civilian casualties in this matter”.
The US has confirmed the deaths of just 41 civilians in coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria since the anti-ISIL air campaign began in September 2014. However, that figure is hotly disputed, with the air strike monitoring group Air Wars counting at least 1,400 civilian deaths. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says coalition attacks have killed more than 450 civilians in Syria alone.
Syria’s government said French jets took part in the strike, but French president Francois Hollande said on Thursday that he had no information on whether French planes were involved.
Direct negotiations with ISIL to surrender major towns such as Manbij — which served as a hub for the extremist group’s fighters entering Syria from Turkey — are rare. But with ISIL surrounded on all sides and rising fears over the fate of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the town, the US-backed fighters appear prepared for compromise.
“We took this decision now after ISIL used residents as human shields, after the media put pressure on us, and to protect whatever civilians are left in the town,” an SDF commander said.
It remains to be seen whether ISIL will heed the ultimatum or trust the SDF’s guarantee of safe passage. Despite often vowing to fight to the death in the cities they control, ISIL forces often retreat when they are overpowered and there is an escape route. But from Manbij, they would have to cross territory controlled by SDF fighters to get to the nearest ISIL front lines — and trust that they do not get attacked on the way.
Separately on Thursday, the United Nations issued an urgent plea for weekly 48-hour truces in Aleppo, where at least a quarter of a million civilians are now trapped by a government siege. Humanitarian agencies have been unable to deliver aid to rebel-held eastern Aleppo since it was cut off by government forces on July 7.
Jan Egeland, the head of the UN-backed humanitarian task force for Syria, said civilians were “on the brink of starvation” and warned that “the clock is ticking”.
“Humanitarian convoys are ready, humanitarian workers are ready. We have the supplies. We need a break in fighting,” he added.
From Jordan, Medecins Sans Frontieres voiced concern about thousands of Syrians trapped on the country’s border, urging the Jordanian government to evacuate the wounded from the frontier.
Tens of thousands of Syrians have been stuck at the border since Amman sealed the frontier following a June 21 ISIL suicide bombing.
“The closure of the borders means that the most vulnerable victims of the conflict, those badly injured by war, no longer have the chance to survive,” warned Luis Eguiluz, MSF’s top official in Jordan.
jwood@thenational.ae
* with additional reporting from Reuters and Agence France-Presse
