U.S.-backed fighters Thursday gave ISIS 48 hours to leave the battleground Syrian town of Manbij, after U.S.-led airstrikes nearby reportedly killed dozens of civilians.
The raids Tuesday by the coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq have provoked an intense backlash and local protests.
Syria's opposition has urged the U.S.-led coalition to suspend its strikes, and international rights groups demanded a thorough investigation.
The Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance that issued the ultimatum said it was intended to "protect civilian lives" in Manbij, a extremist bastion in Aleppo province.
The alliance has been fighting to oust ISIS from the town since June, backed by heavy coalition airstrikes.
"This initiative is the last remaining chance for besieged members of ISIS to leave the town," said the Manbij Military Council, part of the SDF.
"In order to protect civilian lives and property and to protect the town from destruction we announce that we accept the initiative under which besieged ISIS members would leave with their individual light weapons," the statement added.
The initiative was first floated last week by tribal leaders in Manbij, an SDF commander told AFP.
"But we took this decision now after ISIS used residents as human shields, after the media pressure on us, and to protect whatever civilians are left in the town," the commander said on condition of anonymity.
The statement also urged civilians to try to leave Manbij or distance themselves from areas where clashes are taking place.
It follows an intense backlash over the reported deaths Tuesday of at least 56 civilians, including children, in U.S.-led airstrikes while fleeing the ISIS-held village of Al-Tukhar near Manbij.
Several tens of thousands of civilians remain in Manbij, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based activist group.
- Protests against civilian deaths -
The strikes produced one of the highest reported civilian tolls in bombardment by coalition warplanes in Syria.
Syrian activists online urged people around the world to take to the streets to protest the deaths under the banner "Manbij is being exterminated".
"We ask all Syrians, whatever their affiliations or sects, and all free people of the world and especially the people of Manbij to stand in solidarity with our devastated city Sunday, July 24," wrote one page that publishes local news about Manbij.
Activists on the "Manbij News" page called for protests in several Turkish cities including Istanbul and Gaziantep.
There have already been protests in some parts of Aleppo province.
Dozens gathered in rebel-held Azaz Wednesday to condemn the strikes, with a young boy holding up a placard that read: "Our children will tell God everything."
The raids drew international condemnation including from the U.N.'s children agency UNICEF.
"No matter where they are in Syria or under whose control they live -- absolutely nothing justifies attacks on children," said UNICEF's Syria representative, Hanaa Singer.
The agency said as many as 20 children may have been killed in the strikes.
- 'Very difficult fight' -
The opposition National Coalition Wednesday appealed for a halt to U.S.-led strikes against ISIS in Syria to allow a thorough investigation into what it described as a "massacre".
Its president Anas al-Abdah said the U.S.-led coalition was responsible for the "crimes" in Manbij which he said killed at least 125 civilians.
The coalition has acknowledged conducting airstrikes near Manbij recently, and said it was looking into the reports of civilian deaths.
"We will conduct an investigation on any possible civilian casualties in this matter, as we always do, and we'll be transparent about that," Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday.
General Joe Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, said the Manbij operation was a "very difficult fight" with ISIS extremists appearing in various locations.
"And so when it's a dynamic situation like that... we have to respond. And I think that's the situation in which we found this particular" operation.
The Pentagon has acknowledged 41 civilian deaths in its strikes in both Syria and Iraq since 2014, but the Observatory has reported more than 450 civilian killed in U.S.-led raids in Syria alone.
The coalition continued its raids in support of the SDF Thursday, with the Observatory reporting fresh strikes on Manbij in the morning.
It said SDF fighters had seized a southern district of the town overnight.
More than 280,000 people have been killed and half the population displaced since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
The raids Tuesday by the coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq have provoked an intense backlash and local protests.
Syria's opposition has urged the U.S.-led coalition to suspend its strikes, and international rights groups demanded a thorough investigation.
The Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance that issued the ultimatum said it was intended to "protect civilian lives" in Manbij, a extremist bastion in Aleppo province.
The alliance has been fighting to oust ISIS from the town since June, backed by heavy coalition airstrikes.
"This initiative is the last remaining chance for besieged members of ISIS to leave the town," said the Manbij Military Council, part of the SDF.
"In order to protect civilian lives and property and to protect the town from destruction we announce that we accept the initiative under which besieged ISIS members would leave with their individual light weapons," the statement added.
The initiative was first floated last week by tribal leaders in Manbij, an SDF commander told AFP.
"But we took this decision now after ISIS used residents as human shields, after the media pressure on us, and to protect whatever civilians are left in the town," the commander said on condition of anonymity.
The statement also urged civilians to try to leave Manbij or distance themselves from areas where clashes are taking place.
It follows an intense backlash over the reported deaths Tuesday of at least 56 civilians, including children, in U.S.-led airstrikes while fleeing the ISIS-held village of Al-Tukhar near Manbij.
Several tens of thousands of civilians remain in Manbij, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based activist group.
- Protests against civilian deaths -
The strikes produced one of the highest reported civilian tolls in bombardment by coalition warplanes in Syria.
Syrian activists online urged people around the world to take to the streets to protest the deaths under the banner "Manbij is being exterminated".
"We ask all Syrians, whatever their affiliations or sects, and all free people of the world and especially the people of Manbij to stand in solidarity with our devastated city Sunday, July 24," wrote one page that publishes local news about Manbij.
Activists on the "Manbij News" page called for protests in several Turkish cities including Istanbul and Gaziantep.
There have already been protests in some parts of Aleppo province.
Dozens gathered in rebel-held Azaz Wednesday to condemn the strikes, with a young boy holding up a placard that read: "Our children will tell God everything."
The raids drew international condemnation including from the U.N.'s children agency UNICEF.
"No matter where they are in Syria or under whose control they live -- absolutely nothing justifies attacks on children," said UNICEF's Syria representative, Hanaa Singer.
The agency said as many as 20 children may have been killed in the strikes.
- 'Very difficult fight' -
The opposition National Coalition Wednesday appealed for a halt to U.S.-led strikes against ISIS in Syria to allow a thorough investigation into what it described as a "massacre".
Its president Anas al-Abdah said the U.S.-led coalition was responsible for the "crimes" in Manbij which he said killed at least 125 civilians.
The coalition has acknowledged conducting airstrikes near Manbij recently, and said it was looking into the reports of civilian deaths.
"We will conduct an investigation on any possible civilian casualties in this matter, as we always do, and we'll be transparent about that," Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday.
General Joe Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, said the Manbij operation was a "very difficult fight" with ISIS extremists appearing in various locations.
"And so when it's a dynamic situation like that... we have to respond. And I think that's the situation in which we found this particular" operation.
The Pentagon has acknowledged 41 civilian deaths in its strikes in both Syria and Iraq since 2014, but the Observatory has reported more than 450 civilian killed in U.S.-led raids in Syria alone.
The coalition continued its raids in support of the SDF Thursday, with the Observatory reporting fresh strikes on Manbij in the morning.
It said SDF fighters had seized a southern district of the town overnight.
More than 280,000 people have been killed and half the population displaced since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
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