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Islamic State loses ground on fronts in Syria, Iraq

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Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is an international news organisation owned by Thomson Reuters

BEIRUT/BAGHDAD: Islamic State’s far-flung enemies in Syria and Iraq pressed ahead on Wednesday with major advances on multiple fronts that have put some of the greatest pressure on the ultra-hardline Islamists since they declared their caliphate two years ago.

A spokesman for a US-backed alliance in northern Syria said it was poised to enter the city of Manbij, a week after launching an assault with the aim of cutting off the last stretch of Turkish frontier still under Islamic State control.

A short distance further west, rebels fighting against both Islamic State and the government of President Bashar al-Assad said Islamic State fighters had pulled out of an area near the border.

IRAQ POST 1

Assad’s forces, backed by Russian airpower, also launched an offensive against Islamic State last week and have advanced in territory further south.

And at the opposite end of the self-proclaimed caliphate, 750 km down the Euphrates River, Iraqi government forces said they had fought their way into built-up areas of Falluja, the second-biggest city in Iraq under Islamic State control and the militants’ closest bastion to Baghdad.

The Iraqi government is backed both by US air power and by Shi’ite militia allied to Washington’s regional foe Iran.

A five-year civil war in Syria and the weakness of the Iraqi government have made it difficult for world powers and their disparate allies on the ground to coordinate a campaign against the militants.

But the simultaneous attacks on a variety of fronts have created unprecedented pressure on the militants, who have imposed harsh rule over territory with millions of inhabitants while making enemies of all global and regional powers. 

Ambitious Campaign

The campaign by a US-backed alliance called the Syria Democratic Forces is the most ambitious so far waged with support of the United States in Syria, where Washington previously lacked effective allies on the ground.

A small contingent of US special forces troops are assisting the SDF, which was formed last year to combine militarily successful Kurdish militia with Arab allies more acceptable to Washington’s regional NATO ally Turkey.

The goal of the offensive, launched last week, is to capture the area around the town of Manbij west of the Euphrates, and seal off the last 80 km (50 mile) stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border in Islamic State hands.

Falluja Assault

In Iraq, government troops fought their way into a built-up district of the Islamic State bastion of Falluja for the first time on Wednesday after halting on the outskirts of the city last week.

“Our forces have begun in the early hours of the morning progressing in al-Shuhada,” Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman of the elite Counter-Terrorism Service, said.

“Our forces are now cleaning up the district from the roadside bombs and booby-trapped houses, and then we will hand it over to the police forces to hold the ground,” Numani said. The next target would be the city centre.

Prime Minister Haider Abadi ordered the assault of Falluja on the Euphrates last month. The risky strategy veers from the plan of his US allies, who want Baghdad to focus instead on recapturing Islamic State’s Iraqi de facto capital Mosul on the Tigris River further north.

The United Nations said on Wednesday as many as 90,000 civilians could be trapped inside Falluja, nearly doubling its earlier estimate.

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