Evacuation deal as Daesh defeat in Syria's Raqqa nears
madaresharghi Syrian Daesh fighters are set to evacuate their former stronghold of Raqqa in a withdrawal negotiated by local officials and tribesmen, as US-backed forces near the capture of the city. Officials on Saturday gave conflicting accounts on whether the group’s foreign fighters would also be leaving the city, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces […]
Syrian Daesh fighters are set to evacuate their former stronghold of Raqqa in a withdrawal negotiated by local officials and tribesmen, as US-backed forces near the capture of the city.
Officials on Saturday gave conflicting accounts on whether the group’s foreign fighters would also be leaving the city, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been battling to defeat terrorist groups of Iraq and Daesh since June, AL JAZEERA reported.
Talal Silo, spokesman for the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, said Daesh foreign fighters would be left behind ‘to surrender or die’, without saying when the evacuation of Syrian fighters would take place.
A US-led coalition battling Daesh in Syrian and Iraq specifically ruled out the exit of foreign fighters, while making no mention of local fighters. It also warned against any deal that allowed Daesh fighters safe passage without ‘facing justice’.
But Omar Alloush, a member of Raqqa’s Civil Council, said the evacuation would include foreign fighters. He said that it would take place overnight into Sunday. “The Daesh fighters would be taking some 400 civilians with them as human shields,” he said.
“For many SDF commanders, whether the foreign fighters leave in the coming hours or not, they are confident that the full control of the city is just a matter of few hours,” AL JAZEERA, Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Antakya, near the Turkey- Syria border, said.
“They say that they could officially enter [capture] Raqqa tonight.”
Daesh final defeat at Raqqa would be a milestone in efforts to roll back the ‘caliphate’ the group declared in 2014 in Syria and Iraq, where earlier this year it was driven from the major northern city of Mosul.
The group captured Raqqa in 2014, the first city to fall under its full control. Raqqa became synonymous with the worst of Daesh abuses, and infamous as a center for planning attacks abroad.