Islamic State fighters remaining in Raqqa, once the group’s de facto capital, have brokered a deal that would allow them to leave the city with a number of human shields, according to agencies in Syria.



Omar Alloush, a senior official of the Raqqa Civil Council, told Agence France-Presse a deal had been reached to allow fighters out of the city, which is on the verge of being captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

“Foreign fighters are included in the deal,” he said.

According to Alloush, up to 500 fighters including both Syrian and foreign-born jihadists remain in Raqqa. Coalition sources put the number lower at 300-400 fighters. The coalition estimated earlier this week that 300 to 400 militants remained in the city. On Friday, a local official said an estimated about 100 militants had surrendered.

“They [Isis] have 400 hostages with them – women and children – in the national hospital,” Alloush told AFP.

The US-led coalition backing the SDF’s drive for Raqqa had announced the deal earlier on Saturday but said it would exclude foreign Isis fighters. However, Alloush insisted the agreement included non-Syrian jihadists.

“The foreign fighters have two choices: either surrender or be taken out” of the city, Alloush said, saying it was possible they would be taken to Deir Ezzor, an area in eastern Syria where Isis still holds territory.

The agreement comes after days of talks on a way for the US-backed SDF to secure the last parts of the city while avoiding further civilian casualties.

Militants left in Raqqa have only pistols, rifles, light machine guns and a dwindling supply of ammunition, and they are cut off from their leadership, according to a statement from the SDF, which despite its name is largely Kurdish-led.

Despite that, the coalition told the Associated Press that it expects difficult days ahead until Raqqa is retaken. The battle for the town, backed by US-led airstrikes, intelligence and advisers, has been raging since June and is being fought street to street.

The city, once a symbol of Isis’s power and a backdrop to macabre executions posted on social media, is now in ruins and littered with mines and boobytraps. Senior members of the group have long fled.

Among those who left the city over the summer was Sally Jones, a British member of Isis who is believed to have been killed in a drone strike with her 12-year-old son Jojo as she sought refuge on the Syria-Iraq border. She had become one of the group’s most senior women.

Soldiers loyal to the Syrian government have also seized a town in the east of the country that had become one of the last refuges for the Isis leadership, according to local media. Opposition from militants in Mayadeen collapsed on Saturday after weeks of fighting.

The pro-government al-Ikhbariya TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that soldiers were chasing the last militants out of Mayadeen while a military corps of engineers were clearing land mines left in the town.

Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops backed by Shia militias had taken control of the town but were still combing it for militants.