Eyewitnesses talked ... how Manbij liberation's battles carried out -3

JUMAH MOHAMED –SHILAN MOHAMED /MANBIJ

Islamic State 's gangs had depended on its war  within Manbij city 's walls on snipers, mines and  booby-trapped vehicles, this kind of war was followed in al-Hazawna neighborhood where the commander of Shams al-Shamal Brigades Akied Ahmed says that the biggest battle took place within it .

"Every day there was a booby trap targeting our comrades' points." In this sentence, Akeid begins talking about the fighting in al-Hazawna neighborhood "Sometimes we were surprised to find a booby-trapped explosion behind us the destruction of the buildings inside the neighborhood was the result of mines and booby traps," he said. "70% of the destruction in al-Hazawna was due to mines."

After about 25 days of fighting we entered al-Hazawna neighborhood, we had difficulties in the first 10 days because street fighting was difficult for us," said Dabour Manbaj a fighter from Shams al-Shamal Brigades who participated in the battles to liberate al-Hazawna neighborhood, describing it as " "We were trapped  in more than one ambush set up by IS, and numbers of our comrades were martyred and we had forced to withdrwa.

Al-Hazawna neighborhood was the largest. If we took control of it, Manbij city would be almost liberated. IS who fought us were foreigners. We knew them throught their corpses. When we first entered the neighborhood, we set up 3 points. When we reached the fourth point we lost 13 martyrs, and as a result we retreated and did not progress for seven days after the fighting was fierce. The coalition's assistance was weak because IS members were  sneaking into our liberated areas and under the buildings, and in this case the aviation was unable to target them."

Saving civilians ... the most difficult ,important task

IS did not  allow to civilians from  Manbij city to leave the city despite the intensification of the fighting. It was difficult mission to Manbij Military Council Fighters  who gave priority to liberating the civilians. The delay in liberating the city was due to the presence of thousands of civilians inside.

Akid Shams al-Shamal remembers one of the massacres committed by IS against civilians said "At one point we were close to Bezar road. A number of civilians headed to ward our points and IS had targeted them with snipers. 9 of them were killed and remained at the points of contact between us until Al-Karama School was hit and civilians were able to withdraw corpses of the victims."

Another incident recalls that they rescued 3,500 civilians in one day, he says "We are from Manbij city  so we had constant contact with the parents. One of my friends called me and said that they were near the sheep market. I contacted to the leadership to tell them that ," he said.  They were besieged between us and IS ,the leadership asked me to go personally to liberate the civilians being I know them, moved to the areas besieged by a distance of 700 meters and received the first car for civilians, which came out about 3,500 of them. "

IS started  to target us the civilians were distributed quickly and as a result there was a planted landmine that exploded in cattle it did not hit any one of civilians There were snipers targeting us, but because the area we were in was like a low valley, the snipers were not able to accurately detect our locations, ," he said. Three hours later,IS had thought that civilians were still there, so they directed  booby-trap vehicle to the area and detonated it, but none of the civilians were hurt because our comrades were at the front working to protect them, but 3 of our comrades were wounded while one of comrade was martyred in that operation.

Fahad has been besieged again  

After he participated in the battles to liberate the mills, which had been besieged once, Fahad al-Labdah, a fighter of Shams al-Shamal Brigades, went to the western neigborhoods of Manbij to participate in its liberation.

Fahad added saying "We went up to the top of the building until they started shooting at us intensively. They were trying to distract us from the fighting, while a group of them had reached the bottom of the building where we were. They entered the first floor while we were on the second floor. We heard their voices asking us to surrender. The number of them was so much, they set fire to the first floor and we had known then that they had withdrawn. We jumped down and lost the perimeter of the building until we withdrew after more than two hours of fighting.

"After our withdrawal, we received information that a number of wounded IS were there. We went back and inspected the place, but we did not receive anyone and we had known that they had taken their wounds."

Al-Sarab was the last neighborhoods

On Friday, when the afternoon was about to be finished IS were stationed in al-Sarab neighborhood of no more than 3 streets.

remained under domination of IS at the end of the fighting, but thousands of civilians were still trapped inside that neighborhood, which IS prevented them from leaving in order to use them as human shields.

The fighters of Manbij Military Council and Syrian Democratic Forces SDC did not want to launch a military campaign against the neighborhood for fear of civilian lives, because any military action could have killed civilians, so the fighters had no choice but to pay attention to the demands of IS who wanted to withdraw from Manbij towards Jarablus .

Fahad al-Labada said he saw IS when they withdrew from Manbij.said about that "One of IS was hiding among twenty civilians. They put the bombs on the front and the civilians in the middle. Everyone wore the explosive belts. Nobody could hit them with one bullet."

"We tried to liberate al-Sarab neighborhood before withdrawal took place, but when we made a little progress, we saw that they put the civilians in front and used them as human shields, so we retreated. Those who could get out of the civilians were telling us this fact, so we knew that if we fired a single shot, We do not want it, the most important thing we have is the safety of civilians. "

The commander of Sahms al-Shamal Brigades said" I was not involved in these fronts, but I wanted to be in al-Sarab neighborhoods to witness the moments of liberation. I arrived at the park where we stopped the car and started to complete our walking,then the comrades told us over the radio that al-Sarab neighborhood was completely liberated."

And added "I and my comrades from Syrian Democratic Forces SDF were the first people to receive civilians in the first moments after liberation. People did not believe that these were their SDF. They thought that IS once again disguise itself in the uniforms of our forces, because a similar incident occurred in the village of Aoun al-Dadat where more than16 civilians were martyred , people were afraid of us, we told them that we are your children and we are not from IS who knew us approach us while others were moving away, an old man approached me and began to shave his beard and said he did not want to grow it again.

Commander of Shama al-Shamal Brigades describes the most "sadness" moments

"The sadness we could not forget at all moments of Manbij campaign or every minute was the loss of the martyr Faisal Abu Laila and all our martyrs, the martyr Faisal had a special impact, says Akeid recalling the most memorable moments during the liberation campaign.

And added "Abu Layla had asked to put his picture at the entrance to Manbij city and indeed his picture was put on the first day of liberation on al-Batta roundabout, we wanted to liberate the city to confirm that we have fulfilled the covenant."

Mustafa Ahmed, sibling of the commander Akeid Shams al-Shamal was martyred after lossing Abu Laila three days, this incident left an impact on Akeid, who remembers moments before the martyrdom of his sibling, saying: " My brother came to me before his martyrdom a few days and we were quarreling, then reconciled before his  martyrdom a day, Ipromised my mother to bring him home  to see him and I could not but bring him a martyr. The martyrdom of Abu Laila and my brother Mustafa was very Influential.and all the martyrs were so, Martyr Ismail and his sibling who were martyred in the campaign ."

We did not tell the family of martyr Ismail that he was martyred until his sibling was martyred after 15 days. The two were married one day and were martyred in one month. I did not know how to tell his father. Their dream was to reach Manbij, He martyred before reaching the millers by 700 meters when he was trying to rescue one of our wounded comrades. "

On the 12th of August, Manbij city and its villages were liberated from IS and from that day a black page was folded and they opened a new page, which theyare still writting history on it.

Today, In Manbij city lives in a vast population that enjoys freedom in a democratic atmospheres all of which manage the city, which is in a state of security and stability with a great rise in all sectors of life.

(T/S)

ANHA