Arab-Kurd Alliance Seizes Daesh Stronghold in Syria’s Manbij: Monitor
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters on Saturday seized the Daesh (also known as ISIL or ISIS) group stronghold of Manbij, two months after launching an operation to capture the strategic city in northern Syria, a monitor said.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took control of Manbij on Saturday and are combing the city in search of the last remaining of the terrorists, AFP reported.
Manbij is located 446 kilometers (277 miles) north of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The official spokesman of the SDF-allied Manbij military council, Sharfan Darwish, told Reuters that battles were continuing but that around 90 percent of the city had now been cleared of ISIL.
Pockets of the Takfiri militants are still present in the center of the city, the Britain-based Observatory said.
The SDF launched its campaign two months ago to drive Daesh from a last stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.
According to the UN, over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also displaced over half of the Arab country’s pre-war population of about 23 million.
