Scores of IS militants surrender as group loses Raqa from grip
Kobane, Syria - Dozens of Islamic State (IS) militants have surrendered in their former Syrian stronghold of Raqa, the US-led coalition said on Saturday.
In neighbouring Deir Ezzor province meanwhile, Syria’s army captured the IS stronghold of Mayadeen.
A war monitor said no Syrian members of the extremist group remained in Raqa, and that negotiations on the fate of foreign fighters were ongoing.
But the US-led coalition backing the offensive insisted that foreign fighters would not be allowed to leave the city.
In June, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, broke into Raqa, and since then they have captured around 90 per cent of the city.
On Saturday, the US-led coalition confirmed dozens of IS fighters had handed themselves in.
“Within the past 24 hours, approximately 100 ISIS terrorists have surrendered in Raqa, and were removed from the city,” the coalition stated.
Earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, reported that all the remaining Syrian IS members in the city had now left with their families.
“All Syrian fighters from the Islamic State group left Raqa over the past five days,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman, saying they numbered around 200 fighters.
A Raqa official told AFP on Saturday that Syrian IS members had surrendered overnight to the SDF, without specifying how many.
“Those that surrendered are local, not foreigners - the foreigners have not handed themselves in yet,” he said.
An SDF military source told AFP that buses and trucks were waiting outside Raqa and would take the surrendered fighters further to Deir Ezzor.
Members of the RCC - a provisional administration for the city, set up by the SDF - had been working to try to secure safe passage for civilians.
Up to 1,500 civilians have managed to flee in the past week, according to the coalition.
The United Nations estimates thousands more may still be trapped inside.
Abdel Rahman said up to 150 foreign extremists remain in Raqa and negotiations on their fate were ongoing.
“The foreign fighters are asking to leave in one group towards areas under IS control in Deir Ezzor province,” in eastern Syria, he said.
Nuri Mahmud, a spokesman for the key Kurdish People’s Protection Units that forms the SDF’s backbone, denied that any deal would be cut with the IS group.