US backed fighters almost surround IS stronghold in Syria

“We have reached the road that links Manbij and Aleppo, from the west”, Sharfan Darwish, spokesman for the Syria Democratic Forces-allied Manbij Military Council, told Reuters.

The official with the French Defense Ministry said Thursday the forces are with the Syria Democratic Forces, a us -backed Kurdish-led coalition that is fighting the Islamic State group in northern Syria.

“The offensive at Manbij is clearly being backed by a certain number of states including France”.

The Iraqi government is backed both by USA air power and by Shi’ite militia allied to Washington’s regional foe Iran.

Syria’s conflict has evolved into a complex war involving foreign powers since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Monitors confirmed that the Syria Democratic Forces – an alliance which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia and Arab allies – had advanced to within firing distance of the road, one week into a campaign to push the militants out of their foothold along the frontier.

Reflecting the stepped-up fight against IS, the USA military said a second carrier group is nearing the Mediterranean to bolster operations, the first time two American carriers will be in those waters at the same time since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

North of Aleppo, rebels broke an Islamic State siege on their stronghold of Marea, reopening the road linking the rebel-held town to the Turkish border, activists said. “We are committed to fighting them to the end”, Southern Front spokesman Issam el-Rayyes said.

The French advisers are helping US -backed Kurdish and Arab fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces that are trying to push IS militants out of their key stronghold between the Turkish border and the city of Raqqa, their headquarters in Syria.

“Liberating Manbij is a step toward liberating Raqqa and tightening the noose around it”, he said.

Darwish said Islamic State fighters had fled the city and had rigged homes there with explosives.

Ahmed Hadiya, the head of the media center of the anti-IS operation, told The Associated Press Thursday that forces advancing from the west and south most recently dismantled the main stage in Zafarana square, where according to Human Rights Watch at least 49 people were shot, beheaded or crucified by the militants. “Supply line from Marea to Azaz reopened”, he added.

Mansour said Islamic State militants were fighting to keep every village. “It is a strategic area, they were on the verge of entering Azaz”, Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said.

The Iraq assault on Falluja has the support of US air power, but veers from Washington’s battle plan, which called for the government to focus its forces on Mosul, Islamic State’s de facto Iraqi capital further north.

Hospitals and medical facilities have been regularly targeted in Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year.

Over the past two days, government forces have pounded rebel-held eastern parts of the city with airstrikes while rebels are shelling western, government-held districts.

“Our forces have begun in the early hours of the morning progressing in al-Shuhada”, Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman of the elite Counter-Terrorism Service, said.

The Observatory said IS had sent a convoy of weapons and about 100 fighters to reinforce Tabqa in preparation for a major battle.

The deteriorating security in the capital prompted Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to order an assault on Falluja, Islamic State’s closest bastion to the capital, two weeks ago. The risky strategy veers from the plan of his USA allies, who want Baghdad to focus instead on recapturing Islamic State’s Iraqi de facto capital Mosul on the Tigris River further north.

Washington fears a sustained campaign in Falluja could bog down the army in hostile territory and delay the recapture of Mosul.

The United Nations said on Wednesday as many as 90,000 civilians could be trapped inside Falluja, almost doubling its earlier estimate.