OUTSIDE BAGHOUZ, Syria -- Small trucks carrying disheveled men, women and children left the Islamic State militant group's last pocket of territory in eastern Syria in an escorted convoy on Friday.
The departure came hours after U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeted the area on the banks of the Euphrates River.
At least 36 trucks and two buses were seen carrying civilians through a humanitarian corridor from the militants' last patch of territory in the remote village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border. They were escorted by gun-mounted pickups belonging to the U.S.-backed fighters who have delayed their final assault on remaining militants, pending the exit of civilians.
As the evacuation was taking place, automatic-machine-gun fire could be heard in the distance and coalition aircraft flew overhead.
From a self-proclaimed "caliphate" straddling large parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq that they seized in 2014, the militants have lost all but a tiny speck in Baghouz. Some 300 Islamic State militants, along with hundreds of civilians believed to be mostly their families, have been under siege for more than a week in a tent encampment in the village.
Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, said there were coalition airstrikes and intermittent clashes earlier Friday with the militants, meant to pressure them into allowing the last civilians to leave.
"For this evacuation to be a success, there [needs to be] military action," Bali added.
The presence of so many civilians in Baghouz -- and possibly senior members of the militant group -- has surprised the Syrian Democratic Forces and slowed down the expected announcement of the Islamic State group's territorial defeat.
In the past few weeks, nearly 20,000 people had left Baghouz through the humanitarian corridor, leaving the Islamic State holdout on foot, but the militants then closed the passage.
The displacement has overwhelmed camps in northern Syria hosting them.
Bali suggested that many civilians were still inside Baghouz, in caves and tunnels under the tents as well as surrounding homes and buildings.
On the convoy that left Baghouz on Friday, civilians could be seen sitting atop the flatbed trucks, including women, covered from head to toe in black. One of them raised her index finger to the sky -- a gesture some Muslims make to say there is only one God, but also used to refer to the Islamic State group.
A Section on 02/23/2019