The US-led coalition and allied fighters on the ground were forced to watch a large convoy of ISIS vehicles and abducted human shields flee the captured Syrian city of Manbij late last week, the coalition said. US-backed fighters reclaimed the city—a key location near the border with Turkey—which “has significantly impacted the lines of communication for Daesh between Raqqa and the outside world, and also impacted the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and Syria and out to the rest of the world,” coalition spokesman Army Col. Christopher Garver said during a Tuesday briefing. However, US surveillance aircraft were forced to watch ISIS fighters flee after taking human shields, and allied fighters did not use force to stop the convoy. “We did not conduct any strikes because every vehicle had civilians that we could identify,” Garver said. “And so we watched, we kept track.” The civilians have not returned to the city, he said.
Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd III met with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines to discuss bolstering defense ties on May 2. The discussion included plans for joint F-35 exercises with Japan and Australia in the coming years.