US rules out negotiated IS withdrawal from Syria's Raqqa
The US-led coalition battling the Islamic State group said Wednesday that it won't accept a negotiated withdrawal for hundreds of IS militants holed up in the Syrian city of Raqqa, once the extremists' de facto capital.
The remarks by coalition spokesman, Col. Ryan Dillon, came as coalition allies were working out ways to safely evacuate an estimated 4,000 civilians who remain trapped in the city.
The coalition has said IS militants are holding some civilians as human shields, preventing them from escaping as the fight enters its final stages. The city, on the banks of the Euphrates River, has been badly damaged by the fighting, and activists have reported that over 1,000 civilians have been killed there since June.
