Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces gather on Jun 10, 2016 on the outskirts of Manbij in a bid to cut off the main supply route used by the Islamic State group between Syria and Turkey.
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The effective encirclement of Manbij by a militia called the Syria Democratic Forces is part of an assault launched last week, backed by US air power and American special forces, to seal off the last stretch of Syrian-Turkish frontier.
“Around 600 civilians fled on foot towards areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance south of the town”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A small contingent of USA special forces troops are assisting the SDF, which was formed previous year to combine militarily successful Kurdish militia with Arab allies more acceptable to Washington’s regional North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Turkey.
Her grand gesture comes as the Syrian Democratic Forces, a USA -backed force of Kurdish and Sunni Arab troops, are looking to cut off a main supply line of the extremist organization.
The SDF also blocked the road south out of Manbij heading to IS’s de facto capital of Raqa.
Tens of thousands of Syrian civilians have been trapped in the Daesh-held northern city of Manbij which is encircled by Kurdish and Arab fighters.
In a largely upbeat briefing to White House reporters on “a lot of progress” against militants in both Syria and Iraq, McGurk did not mention setbacks to hopes for a political resolution of Syria’s separate civil war, which the Obama administration has said is crucial to winning the fight against the Islamic State. Syrian journalist Mustafa Bali, who visited the front lines in Manbij, told The Associated Press the extremists didn’t appear to be preparing to withdraw from the town as they had from other areas. There was no confirmation of an Iraqi media report that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been wounded in US-led air strikes.
The army also launched its advance last week in what media sympathetic to Damascus have described as a “race to Raqqa” – to take territory in Islamic State’s heartland before the US-backed militia get their first.
Manbij is a key strategic town under Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) control in northern Syria.
“It is their main kind of access route from Raqqa”, said United States envoy Brett mcGurk. However, unnamed Libyan security sources told the Arabic language media that French commandos had fought alongside Libyan government forces in eastern city Benghazi.
“There’s no road left… they’re all cut”, the Observatory’s director, Rami Abdulrahman, said. Dislodging IS from the last stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier where it has a foothold has been a top priority of the USA -led coalition fighting the group in Iraq and Syria.
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Near Damascus, a food aid convoy entered the town of Daraya in the first such delivery since the start of a regime siege in 2012. “We are helping with arms, we are helping with aerial support, we are helping with advice”.
