It looks like it’s all over but the crying as ISIS soldiers line up to surrender. The US and it’s allies bombarded the last stronghold ISIS was holding onto along the banks of the Euphrates River.
The operation began as a ploy to get ISIS to allow the civilians to leave the area, but morphed into a surrender of at least most of the remaining forces. It was thought that there were only about 300 ISIS fighters left but no word on the number killed or captured.
At least 36 trucks and two buses were seen leaving the area through a humanitarian corridor from the militants’ last patch of territory in the remote village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border.
They were escorted by gun-mounted trucks belonging to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
As the convoy passed, automatic machine gun fire could be heard in the distance and coalition aircraft flew overhead.
Some 300 IS militants, along with hundreds of civilians believed to be mostly their families, have been under siege for more than a week in the tent camp in Baghouz.
Machine gun fire could be heard in the distance as coalition aircraft flew over the group – some of whom were clutching knock-off designer bags.
An estimated 300 ISIS fighters have spent the last week under siege in Baghouz.
They were surrounded by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who were unable to carry out their final assault due to the presence of civilians.
SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said the airstrikes were meant to pressure the remaining terrorists into letting the last civilians out.