Final convoy takes civilians from last tiny IS enclave
A CONVOY of lorries carrying hundreds of civilians has left the last enclave held by Islamic State militants in eastern Syria, signalling a possible end to a stand-off that has lasted for more than a week.
At least 17 vehicles emerged through a humanitarian corridor in Baghouz, a village near the Iraqi border where IS is making its final stand. The corridor has been used in past weeks to evacuate people from the militants’ last patch of territory along the Euphrates River.
Women, children and men, some with headscarves, or keffiyehs, could be seen through a flap opening on the flatbed lorries.
One man carried a crutch; the women were wearing conservative black garments covering their faces.
Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Us-backed militia spearheading the fight against IS in Syria, confirmed the vehicles were carrying civilians out of the enclave.
It was not immediately clear if IS militants were also on board the lorries.
Around 300 militants are believed to be holed up in the enclave, with several hundred civilians.
On Tuesday, Mr Bali said a military operation aimed at ousting the extremists from the area will begin if they do not surrender, adding that such an operation would take place after separating or evacuating the civilians from the militants.
SDF commander Zana Amedi said most of the militants remaining inside the enclave are seriously wounded or sick.
IS has been reduced from its selfproclaimed “caliphate” that once spread across much of Syria and Iraq at its height in 2014 to a speck of land on the countries’ shared border.
The SDF has been encircling the remaining Is-held territory for days, waiting to declare the territorial defeat of the extremist group.
Nearly 20,000 civilians had left the shrinking area in recent weeks before the evacuation halted last week when the militants closed all the roads out of the tiny area.
Meanwhile, seven children, all members of a Syrian family who arrived in Canada about two years ago, have died in a fire that engulfed a suburban home.
A woman who lives next door in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said the children ranged in age from three months to 17 years old. A man and woman remain in hospital, the man with life-threatening injuries.