Rebels ready to sever Raqqa supply line
Manbij lies just 50 air miles northeast of Aleppo, where Syrian government forces, aided by Russian Federation and Iran, are engaged in fast-escalating air and ground attacks against US - and coalition-backed rebel groups seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Forces allied with Libya’s unity government yesterday battled to retake the Islamic State group’s last redoubts in its stronghold of Sirte, facing fierce resistance including a series of suicide vehicle bombings.
It appears to have provoked Moscow and its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to turn their fire on Islamic State as well, after months in which the West criticised Russian Federation for mainly striking other enemies of Assad.
IS claimed the attacks on its Amaq news agency, saying they were carried out by three suicide bombers. “This means that the collapse of the group in Manbij is very near”, SDF officer Habun Osman told the local ARA News.
“The first line of ISIS in Halula is broken and in Sheikh Hajji Hussein and Mustafa Hamada”. “We are not anxious about the regime’s progress into Raqqa, because they can’t achieve anything there”, said Mr Darwish.
A spokesman for the U.S. defence department said on Wednesday that the final assault on Manbij could take place within days.
Washington, which has more than 200 special forces troops deployed to back the SDF, has said some 3,000 Arab fighters are taking part in the assault, supported by about 500 Kurds.
The US-led coalition against ISIS thinks that the operation to take the city will be hard. “The SDF has met heavy resistance from Daesh [ISIS] at the onset of the operation and at points along the way”.
“The forces we support are focused on Manbij right now, and that’s where we’re supporting them”.
Underneath the niqab, she reveals a colourful patterned dress and purple headscarf, which she could not have worn while their village was under ISIS. “If they [SDF] enter Manbij now, they will lose a lot of fighters”. Other Arab civilians could be seen dancing victory dances, and hugging the SDF fighters.
“Manbij is where we believe the Paris attackers, the Brussels attackers, they all kind of pulsed through this area”, McGurk said.
Leighton said the dangers are likely to continue, as US military advisers have to be seen as tough, reliable partners by the local forces.
They are among a total of 447 civilians killed in coalition raids since they began in Syria in September 2014, according to the monitor’s tally.
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Assad has been fighting a civil war against a range of enemies for five years.
“We don’t understand the United Nations figure”, Matar said. The French forces are with SDF fighters who are fighting IS, according to the official from French Defense Ministry.
He said its especially important to learn demining.
But SDF spokesmen said movement into the town would be cautious, mainly because of IS mines and booby-trap explosives.
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The SDF also blocked the road south out of Manbij heading to Daesh’s de facto capital of Raqa. On Wednesday, black smoke covered Manbij as militants set tires ablaze in an apparent attempt to cut visibility from coalition warplanes, he said.
Abu Muthanna, a deputy FSA commander, told me during a funeral in Kobani that so far the Northern Raqqa campaign has stopped. “Manbij is a big city, and not easy to control in 1 or 2 days”, Nasan added. A military source said in February that Tabqa, some 50 km (30 miles) west of Raqqa city, would be the first target of a Syrian government attack in Raqqa province.