Manbij lies at the heart of the last stretch of IS-controlled territory along Turkey’s border.
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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighters for the Democratic Forces are about half a mile from the last main road linking Manbij with the city of Aleppo.
The SDF had by Thursday advanced to within firing distance of the last main highway into Manbij, the extremist group’s main stronghold in the border area west of the Euphrates.
More than 20 bombs were dropped on the Damascus suburb after the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and United Nations delivered the first aid since November 2014.
Ultimately, the loss of Manbij probably won’t seriously threaten the use of Jarabulus as an ISIS crossing point from Turkey, and Turkey has warned that Kurdish attacks on Jarabulus itself would be a “red line” that would lead to them joining the war.
“Manbij is where we believe the Paris attackers, the Brussels attackers, they all kind of pulsed through this area”, McGurk said, “from Raqa up to Manbij and then out to the capitals where they had organized their attack”. “Make-up, parties, and weddings were not allowed”.
An AFP reporter saw a young boy beg for bread from passing cars.
“Daesh wanted the battle to take place outside the city but we have moved in, and retaken all this area in eight days”, he said, standing on rooftop on the edge of the Shuhada neighbourhood.
“We have collected corpses of 24 ISIS militants who were killed in the clashes, including their commander Dahham al-Hussein”, the official said, adding that five SDF fighters lost their lives in the fighting and a dozen more were injured.
Government troops backed by Russian air strikes have also pushed an offensive to the southwest of Tabqa.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a USA -backed Kurdish and Arab alliance, have liberated several villages and small towns on the edges of Manbij, cutting of an important supply route. He estimated some 15,000 civilians had fled. In a statement released through the Amaq news agency, Isil said that the attack involved two suicide bombers, as well as a vehicle laden with explosives.
US 6th Fleet spokesman Lt. Shawn Eklund says USA warships are there to carry out anti-Islamic State actions and to reassure European allies. The heavily guarded shrine receives thousands of Shi’ite pilgrims each year.
IS bombings near the shrine in February killed 134 people, mostly civilians, according to the Observatory.
They added that another suicide auto bomber attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint north of Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 32.
The shrine draws thousands of Iraqi and Afghan Shia militia recruits before they are sent to fight predominantly Sunni rebel groups trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
The shrine contains the grave of Zeinab, a venerated granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed, and is renowned for its glistening golden, onion-shaped dome.
Syria’s war has killed 280,000 people and displaced millions since it erupted with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA), said on Friday the agency was still waiting for permission from Damascus to deliver aid to two besieged areas.
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A convoy of food aid – approved by Damascus – late Thursday reached the town of Daraya for the first time since the regime laid siege to the town in 2012.
