US-backed forces on Sunday announced the “final phase” of the battle to retake Syria’s Raqa, after the city was evacuated except for foreign Islamic State (IS) group fighters and their families.
More than 3,000 civilians on Saturday night fled Raqa under an evacuation deal that left just a few hundred foreign IS fighters and some of their relatives in the handful of positions they still hold in their one-time Syrian stronghold.
Commanders said the way was now clear for a final assault by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab militia alliance that broke into Raqa in June and has since captured 90 percent of the city.
SDF spokesman Talal Sello said the 3,000 civilians had evacuated to areas controlled by the forces under a deal negotiated between local officials from the Raqa Civil Council (RCC) and Syrian IS fighters.
“Only 250 to 300 foreign terrorists who refused the deal and decided to stay and fight until the end remain in the city, and relatives of some members are with them,” he said.
Sello said a total of 275 Syrian IS fighters and family members had also left militant-held parts of the city and were with SDF fighters.
With the deal’s implementation, the SDF announced what it said was the last phase of the fight to capture the city.
There had been contradictory reports about whether the deal would allow foreign IS fighters to leave, something that has been strongly opposed by the US-led coalition supporting the SDF.
The RCC on Sunday issued a statement denying that foreign IS fighters had been allowed to leave, after one of its members said “a portion of the foreigners have left.”
“For clarification and accuracy, the foreign [IS] are not at all the concern of the Raqa Civil Council and the tribal leaders and they cannot be pardoned,” the RCC said.
The US-led coalition had on Saturday announced a convoy would leave the city, saying that it would not include foreign IS fighters.
“Our stance was they either stay and fight or they surrender unconditionally,” coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said on Sunday.
However, local officials had not been asked for guarantees, Dillon said.
“This is a local solution,” he said. “While we may not fully agree with our partners sometimes, we have to respect their own solutions to their issues.”
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