Kurdish, Arab fighters engage Daesh inside Syria’s Manbij
An alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces has reportedly managed to enter Manbij in Syria’s Aleppo Province weeks after encircling the Daesh-held city.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pushed into Manbij, located some 30 kilometers west of the Euphrates, hours after they seized control of a village southwest of the city, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Thursday.
According to the Observatory, fierce street battles were still going on in the streets of Manbij.
It said at least two SDF fighters were killed when a bomb was detonated inside a building. There were no immediate reports about causalities among the ranks of Daesh.
Sources said Thursday that Daesh had planted many booby-traps to stop the advance of the SDF.
This is the second time in less than a month that SDF attempts to capture Manbij, a town of 120,000 people before the conflict started in Syria more than five years ago. The area fell to Daesh in 2014.
The Kurdish-Arab fighters encircled the city earlier in this month but faced heavy resistance by Daesh.
Manbij is situated some 40 kilometers from the Turkish border. The SDF forces have so far liberated dozens of villages and farms in the area since the start of their anti-Daesh assault on May 31. However, the SDF has been slow in its advances as many civilians are still trapped inside the city.
The recapture of Manbij could cut Daesh militants’ main access route to the outside world, paving the way for an offensive to flush the terrorists out of their main stronghold in Syria’s Raqqah Province.
The Takfiri group has used the town as a key station on its supply route from Turkey into Raqqah.
Daesh has lost a significant portion of the territories it used to control in Iraq and Syria as government forces in both countries have pushed forward to retake towns and villages from the group.
Syrian military and allies have been planning a major offensive into Raqqah to dismantle the most significant bastion of Daesh in the Arab country.
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