US-backed fighters in Syria close roads around Daesh stronghold

BEIRUT — US-backed fighters in Syria on Thursday closed off all major roads leading to the northern Syrian town of Manbij, a stronghold of the Daesh terror group, and surrounded it from three sides, officials and opposition activists said.

The town is one of the largest Daesh-held urban areas in northern Aleppo province. It is also a waypoint on a Daesh supply line between the Turkish border and the extremists' de facto capital, Raqqa. 

If the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) capture Manbij, it will be the extremists' biggest defeat in Syria since government forces took the central historic town of Palmyra in March.

The US Central Command said the Manbij operation is part of the "moderate Syrian opposition" efforts to clear areas along the border with Turkey from Daesh. Members of the American and French military have been advising forces fighting Daesh in northern Syria.

A statement by the Military Council of the City of Manbij, which is part of the SDF, said that all roads from the east, north and south have been cut. 

The group said they are now close enough to target Daesh inside the town, but they are holding off storming Manbij to avoid civilian casualties.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said SDF fighters are about 800 metres from the last main road linking Manbij with the city of Aleppo. 

Since the SDF offensive began on May 31, the observatory says 132 Daesh militants, 21 SDF fighters and 37 civilians have been killed there.

Mustafa Bali, a Syrian journalist who visited the front lines in Manbij on Thursday, told The Associated Press that the extremists do not appear to be preparing to withdraw from Manbij as they had from other areas. 

He added that on Wednesday, black clouds covered the city as Daesh set tyres alight to apparently obscure visibility inside Manbij and prevent air strikes by the US-led coalition planes flying overhead.

"Daesh is preparing for a battle inside the city," Bali said. 

SDF official Nasser Haj Mansour said on Wednesday that some 15,000 civilians had fled Manbij.

In its statement, the US Central Command also said that the US-led coalition has conducted more than 105 strikes in support of the battle to liberate Manbij. 

It added that the "Syrian Arab Coalition is leading the operation and will be responsible for securing Manbij once it is freed" . 

The town's Arab residents fear Kurdish fighters, who are predominant in the SDF, will also enter their town.

The statement said coalition advisers are assisting the fighters in the battles “with command and control from nodes located behind the forward line of friendly forces”. 

In France, an official confirmed that French special forces are offering training and giving advice to SDF fighters. 

The official with the French Defence Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the record, said its forces are with SDF fighters who are fighting against Daesh.

He did not provide other details.

In a roundtable interview last week, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French forces were participating. “We are helping with arms, we are helping with aerial support, we are helping with advice.” 

The US also has around 300 Special Forces embedded with the SDF in northern Syria.

The US military also said a second carrier group is nearing the Mediterranean Sea to bolster operations, the first time two American carriers will be in those waters at the same time since the 2003 Iraq invasion.

US European Command Spokesperson Lt. Col. David Westover said the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group of guided missile cruisers and destroyers was now in EUCOM’s area of responsibility in the Atlantic en route to the Mediterranean.

It joins the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group already in the Mediterranean.

US 6th Fleet spokesman Lt. Shawn Eklund says US warships are there to carry out anti-Daesh actions and to reassure European allies.

“When we put carriers in place, it sends a signal,” he said.