More civilians, mainly women and
children, are expected on Tuesday to leave the last pocket still
under Islamic State control in eastern Syria, where a US-backed
Syrian force is battling to end the radical group's presence there.
"Trucks went into the Baghuz area and we are hoping more civilians
will come out today," Adnan Afrin, a commander in the US-allied
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told dpa.
"On Monday the total number that came out reached 2,500, mainly
women, children and elderly," the Kurdish official said.
Afrin said he expects that the rest of the civilians will be
evacuated in the coming two days.
"From our end we are facilitating the evacuation of the civilians,
but Daesh is behind the delay," he added, using the Arabic acronym
for Islamic State.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said among the
people who left Baghuz on Monday are some 120 members of Islamic
State who turned themselves in to SDF.
Hundreds of civilians have been evacuated in the past few days from
the village of Baghuz, the last area Islamic State holds in the
oil-rich eastern Syria.
The SDF command insists civilians, whom it says are being used as
human shields by Islamic State, leave the area before a final battle
against the militant group in the area resumes.
Earlier this month, the SDF forces, supported by a US-led alliance,
started what it called the final battle aimed at capturing Bahguz.
The SDF forces have played a key role in battling Islamic State in
northern and eastern Syria.
Women and children evacuated from the Islamic State (IS) group's embattled holdout of Baghouz wait in a zone held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during an operation to expel IS jihadists from the area, in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor