BEIRUT (AP) – The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces pushed into the outskirts of the Islamic State group’s stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria on Thursday and were advancing slowly to the center of town, an adviser to the predominantly Kurdish force and a monitoring group said.
The town lies along the only IS supply line between the Turkish border and the extremist group’s self-styled capital, Raqqa. If Manbij is captured, it will be the biggest strategic defeat for IS in Syria since July 2015, when it lost the border town of Tal Abyad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting was taking place between IS fighters and the SDF on the southwestern edge of Manbij.
Rami Abdurrahman, the director of the monitoring group which relies on a network of activists in Syria, said the SDF seized two squares on the western side of the city, then advanced toward a third square with air support from the U.S.-led coalition.
An adviser to the SDF, Nasser Haj Mansour, said troops had moved into the town from its northern edge on Wednesday, close to grain silos, prompting clashes with IS militants. He confirmed that other troops entered Manbij from the west.