Evacuation deal for Syria's Raqa

 A convoy will leave Syria’s Raqa on Saturday under an evacuation deal agreed as a US-backed force battles to seize the Islamic State group’s last positions in the city.

The US-led coalition said the deal for the evacuation would exclude foreign IS fighters, but left unclear whether Syrian jihadists would be able to quit their one-time stronghold.

The agreement, reached by local officials, comes after days of talks on a way for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to secure the last parts of the city while avoiding further civilian casualties.

Earlier Saturday, the US-led coalition said around 100 IS fighters had surrendered to the SDF in the past 24 hours, but again stressed that no foreign fighters would be allowed to escape the city.

In neighbouring Deir Ezzor province meanwhile, Syria’s army captured the IS stronghold of Mayadeen, in the latest blow to the jihadists who are seeing their self-styled “caliphate” crumble.

Raqa was once the de facto Syrian capital of the jihadist group’s “caliphate” and the city’s loss would be a new blow for IS, which has already been driven from its strongholds in Iraq including second city Mosul.

In June, the US-backed SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, broke into Raqa, and since then they have captured around 90 percent of the city.

– ‘Minimise civilian casualties’ –

In recent days, talks had been under way on a deal to secure the last parts of Raqa while protecting trapped civilians, some of them being used by IS fighters as human shields.

“The arrangement is designed to minimise civilian casualties and purportedly excludes foreign Daesh terrorists as people trapped in the city continue to flee the impending fall of Daesh’s so-called capital,” the coalition said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

“People departing Raqa under the arrangement are subject to search and screening by Syrian Democratic Forces,” it added.

A Raqa official told AFP on Saturday that Syrian IS members had surrendered overnight to the SDF, without specifying how many.

“They sent a message to the Raqa Civil Council (RCC) and to the tribal mediators,” the official said. 

“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 east to Deir Ezzor province, much of which remains under IS control.

Members of the RCC — a provisional administration for the city, set up by the SDF — had been working with tribal leaders throughout the week to try to secure safe passage for civilians.

Up to 1,500 civilians have managed to flee the battle-ravaged city in the past week, according to the coalition. The United Nations estimates thousands more may still be trapped inside.

US-led coalition strikes have dropped off at points in the past week, with its latest update reporting no air raids on Friday.

– City on verge of capture –

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor of the war, said all the Syrian IS fighters in the city had left, but negotiations on the fate of 150 foreign jihadists were ongoing.

“The foreign fighters are asking to leave in one group towards areas under IS control in Deir Ezzor province,” said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

The US-led coalition however insisted that “foreign fighters are not being allowed to leave Raqa,” and cautioned that it still expected “difficult fighting in the days ahead.”

“Daesh is on the verge of being finished in Raqa in the coming days,” said Nuri Mahmud, a spokesman for the key Kurdish People’s Protection Units that forms the SDF’s backbone.

IS captured Raqa in 2014, turning it into a byword for its outrageous abuses as well as a centre for the planning of attacks abroad.

The jihadists are also under attack in their remaining territory in Deir Ezzor province, where Syria’s Russian-backed army on Saturday captured the town of Mayadeen.

The army and the SDF are fighting two separate campaigns in the province.

In neighbouring Iraq, the jihadists now hold just a sliver of territory in the Euphrates River valley.

Source: AFP