As ISIS retreated they used these vehicles as cover to prevent an attack

Spokesman for US-backed group said civilians were packed into cars

Civilians have been seen celebrating the end of ISIS rule in the area

Syrians have been pictured celebrating after they were liberated from ISIS rule in a northern stronghold in the country.

A woman was seen smiling in Manbij as she burned a niqab she was forced to wear by the Islamic State regime while another man could not stop beaming as he had his beard cut.

The outpour of emotion came after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish force backed by the US, expelled most of the terror group's troops from the town last week.

As the ISIS fighters left the town, they packed the civilians into cars to prevent the SDF from attacking them.

ISIS, which previously held the city for two-and-a-half years since seizing it in January 2014, took around 2,000 civilians to use as 'human shields' as they fled.

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A Syrian woman is pictured burning a niqab she had been forced to wear under ISIS rule

Another man is seen smiling as he has his beard cut, with facial hair reportedly enforced by Islamic State leaders

Hundreds of people have been evacuated from Manbij by the Syrian Democratic Forces after the Arab-Kurdish army drove ISIS away from the area

'While withdrawing from a district of Manbij, Daesh (IS) jihadists abducted around 2,000 civilians from Al-Sirb neighbourhood,' said Sherfan Darwish, spokesman for the Manbij Military Council, a key component of the SDF.

'They used these civilians as human shields as they withdrew to Jarabulus, thus preventing us from targeting them,' he added.

Al-Sirb is a district in northern Manbij on the way to the IS-held border town of Jarabulus in Aleppo province near the border with Turkey.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources on the ground to cover the conflict, also reported that IS had abducted around 2,000 civilians as they fled Manbij.

It said the civilians were placed in hundreds of cars that then headed for Jarabulus.

Darwish said the civilians who were taken were residents of Al-Sirb and other districts, including a central neighbourhood known as the 'security quarter' in the centre of Manbij.

Women have been seen embracing SDF fighters in the street after the liberation

Soldiers helped families get out of the area and carried children away to prevent them being attacked in retaliation by ISIS

Mothers were spotted smiling and in tears as they were moved to safety by the SDF

It was not immediately clear how many jihadists fled from the town, but reports last week after the SDF forces took Manbij said that dozens of IS fighters were holed up in the 'security quarter'.

Darwish said that around 2,500 other civilians 'held captive by the jihadists were saved' by the SDF.

The US-backed forces were meanwhile combing Al-Sirb on Friday for jihadists who could still be in the neighbourhood, he added.

As previously reported, the SDF released a video today where soldiers toured an ISIS 'religious police' headquarters where women were tortured with poles and chains if they were spotted without their faces covered.

A Syrian Democratic Forces fighter filmed a video inside the ISIS religious police torture building. He found a chain (left) used to beat women and a list of the alleged 'crimes' (right)

In the video, an SDF fighter explains the 'Hasba centre' is what ISIS call its 'religious police' headquarters.

Men would observe the attire and behaviour of the local people and bring them to the torture centre if they were spotted breaking the strict Sharia Law rules.

With air support from the US-led coalition, the SDF began its assault on Manbij on May 31, surging into the town itself three weeks later.

But their offensive was slowed by a massive jihadist fightback using suicide attackers and car bombs, before a major push last week saw the SDF seize 90 percent of the town.

LIBERATORS: WHO ARE THE SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES? The Syrian Democratic Forces are an alliance of Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Turkmen and Circassian militias in the Syrian Civil War, who are primarily fighting against ISIS and other Islamist groups such as the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. The group claims to want to set up a democratic and secular Syria and it has created a political wing called the Syrian Democratic Council to help achieve self-rule. It was created in October 2015 and some of its forces have been backed by the US who have air-dropped them weapons including assault rifles, mortars and ammunition. Rebels trained by the Pentagon are also believed to be serving with the SDF. Advertisement

Islamic State group fighters seized around 2,000 civilians to use as 'human shields' as they fled their stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria. Photo taken in 2014

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish force backed by the US, expelled most of the terror group's forces from Manbij last week

Tens of thousands of people lived in Manbij before the assault started in May.

The United Nations has said that more than 78,000 people have been displaced since then.

Manbij had served as a key transit point along IS's supply route from the Turkish border to Raqa, the de facto capital of its self-styled Islamic 'caliphate'.

The Britain-based Observatory says that the battle for Manbij has claimed the lives of at 437 civilians -- including 105 children -- and killed 299 SDF fighters and 1,019 jihadists.

A SDF fighter rushes to help civilians who were evacuated from Manbij on August 12

A member of the SDF indicates a safe street to civilians fleeing zones controlled by Islamic State group on August 7