An alliance of US-backed Syrian militias yesterday vowed to drive the Islamic State (IS) group from the city of Manbij and nearby areas in northern Syria, urging civilians there to stay away from IS positions that would be targeted in the campaign.
“We confirm that this campaign will continue until the liberation of the last inch of the land of Manbij and its rural areas,” said a joint statement in the name of the attacking Syria Democratic Forces and allied Manbij Military Council.
The statement was read out on the banks of the Euphrates River by Manbij Military Council commander Adnan Abu Amjad.
Photo: Reuters
“We urge our people in the city of Manbij to stay away from all centers and positions where the Daesh terrorists are present because they will be military targets for our forces. We call on them to take measures to ensure their safety,” he said, using another name for IS.
“We also call on our people in Manbij to offer support and help to our forces,” Abu Amjad said.
He said the Manbij military council represented all the area’s ethnic groups which he listed as Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Circassians.
The statement urged civilians in Manbij to cooperate with the attacking forces and said control would be handed to a civilian council after the town was freed.
“Oh brave people of Manbij, our forces are coming to liberate our [city] from the shackles of the Daesh terrorist torturers,” it said.
Thousands of US-backed fighters opened a major new front in Syria’s war, launching an offensive to drive IS out of a swathe of northern Syria it uses as a logistics base.
The operation, which began on Tuesday after weeks of quiet preparations, aims to choke off the group’s access to Syrian land along the Turkish border that the militants have long used to move foreign fighters back and forth to Europe.
A Kurdish source, speaking on condition of anonymity in Beirut, predicted the Syrian militias would reach IS-held Manbij within days, after advancing to within 10km of the town.
It was too early to say how the battle for Manbij would go, the source said, but added that Islamic State defenses stationed on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign.
Meanwhile, Turkish military sources yesterday said that the Turkish army had killed five IS militants in Syria in cross-border shelling, hitting positions west of where the US-backed offensive was launched.
While Washington informed Ankara of the Manbij operation, it was beyond the range of Turkish artillery and Turkey would not back a campaign in which Syrian Kurdish fighters played a role, another Turkish military source said on Wednesday.
Turkish border guards fired artillery at two IS positions near the Syrian town of Azaz on Wednesday, the Turkish military sources said, west of the US-backed operation and directly south of the Turkish border town of Kilis, which has been repeatedly hit by IS rockets.
Turkey objects to the US’ backing of the Kurdish YPG militia against IS in Syria because it considers the group to have deep ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group waging an insurgency in the Turkish southeast.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Wednesday said weapons given to the YPG militia in Syria were making their way to PKK militants in Turkey.
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