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Syrian rebels take key district near Jarablus
[ARA News] JARABLUS – Subsequent to clashes with militants of the Islamic State (ISIS), Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Sunday made new gains in northern Syria, seizing control of key villages on the Manbij-Jarablus highway. The SDF-led Manbij Military Council seized control of the key village of Awn Dadat on the ISIS supply route between Jarablus and Manbij near the Turkish border. “The SDF also liberated the villages of Khirbat Hisan, Malla Saad and Safiya north of Manbij. Today ISIS lost a main supply route between Jarablus and Manbij,” an SDF official told ARA News. “Dozens of ISIS militants were killed in the clashes before the terror group evacuated its headquarters in the area,” the source reported. Also on Sunday, US-backed SDF troops attacked ISIS positions in the village of Qaraa, about 6km from the city of Manbij. The SDF targeted an ISIS weapons storage centre in Qaraa, “causing heavy losses in ISIS’ manpower and equipment” the SDF leadership said in a statement obtained by ARA News. Syrian Democratic Forces have earlier liberated dozens of villages from ISIS in the battle for Manbij. Backed by the US-led coalition’s airstrikes, the SDF is currently engaged in clashes with ISIS at the city’s border. Last Tuesday, the Kurdish-led SDF troops launched an operation to capture Manbij and it’s countryside from the extremist group of Islamic State (ISIS). The newly established city council of Manbij released a statement suggesting that the liberation is near. Speaking to ARA News, US-led coalition spokesman Colonel Christopher Garver said that for the US “it’s critical that the ISIS-held Manbij pocket of 98-kilometers is seized from the radical group”. “As to why the Manbij pocket is important, it represents a major border crossing point where foreign fighters can cross into Syria from Turkey,” Garver said. Top Syrian Kurdish commander killed in Raqqa campaign [Ynet] A top Syrian Kurdish commander died Sunday, several days after sustaining injuries during a US-backed campaign to unseat the ISIS group from its de-facto Syrian capital, Raqqa. Abu Layla, who commanded a brigade inside the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, was hit by ISIS sniper fire on the outskirts of Manbij, an ISIS group stronghold that controls the supply route between the Turkish border and Raqqa, the Kurdish website Rudaw said. He was evacuated by US forces to a hospital in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah, where he died. The commander fought against ISIS bully boyz in Kobani in early 2015, according to the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. Those battles, the first major setback to the ISIS advance in northern Syria, were seen as instrumental to securing US support for Kurdish forces in the country's multi-layered conflict. Posted by: badanov 2016-06-06 |
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