The civil war, now in its sixth year, has turned in Assad’s favor ever since Russian Federation began a bombing campaign in September, helping Syrian troops recapture wide areas from insurgents.
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Michael Weiss, a CNN contributor and co-author of the book “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror”, said: “In the last several months, they lost their war minister, the number two in the organization, their so-called oil minister”.
In Syria, the government of President Bashar al-Assad also launched a separate offensive last week against Islamic State, with Russian air support.
“The Obama administration is keen to demonstrate some form of achievement against the Islamic State before the end of the president’s term, and in a way it seems that the focus on military achievement is overshadowing what happens the day after”, Khatib of the Chatham House think tank said.
The Islamic State group also is under siege in neighboring Iraq, as government forces there surround the western city of Fallujah, which has been held by the extremists for more than two years.
Escalating fighting there helped ruin the cessation of hostilities agreement agreed in February.
The U.S. had said that moderate rebel groups mingled with the terrorists in some areas and that Russian Federation should use caution and not strike those groups by mistake.
He thanked Russia, Iran, China and the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah for the support they had provided.
“There were no surprises in what he said, unfortunately”, Toner told reporters in Washington. “The fact that the regime is once again targeting medical facilities is unconscionable and should be strongly condemned”, he said.
He was speaking at the parliament that convened this week for the first time since it was elected in April.
Government supporters said the vote was a sign of support for Assad, while his opponents said it was illegitimate.
Thousands of civilians have fled Manbij as US-backed Arab-Kurdish fighters close in on what is the key supply route to ISIL’s stronghold in its so-called capital in Syria, Raqqa.
Bassma Kodmani, a member of a Syrian opposition group known as the High Negotiations Committee, said it is perplexed by the Syria Democratic Forces’s political position, saying the group sometimes attacks the Syrian army and sometimes fights on the same side.
The perceived coordination between the SDF and the Syrian army is a potential problem for the USA, because the Syrian government forces get more emboldened by each military victory against IS.
The IS advance has stalled five kilometres to the southeast of Azaz.
On Wednesday, the SDF was between two and seven kilometres from Manbij, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory on Human Right and ISIL was allowing civilians to escape westward both in cars and on foot.
IS “did not fight hard, but rather withdrew, as they are facing attacks on numerous fronts in northern Syria”, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
About 20,000 people are still living in Manbij, which had a pre-war population of about 120,000 – mostly Arabs, but about a quarter Syrian Kurds. DAESH overran the town in early 2014, just months before declaring a cross-border caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Manbij lies at the heart of a pocket of IS-held territory along the border that USA commanders regard as the principal entry point for foreign fighters and funds.
The ISIL supply route runs from Jarabulus on the border south through Manbij and winds south-east along the Euphrates through the town of Tabqa and on to Raqqa.
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Their battle with Islamic State is separate to one being waged further east by the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces, which includes the Kurdish YPG militia.
