US-backed Syrian alliance, Assad regime make gains against 'Islamic State'

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US-supported Syrian fighters as well as Russian-backed Syrian regime forces are honing in on the power center of "Islamic State." The aim is to seize supply lines from Turkey and pave the way for the capture of Raqqa.

A coalition of Syrian Arab and Kurdish forces backed by US-airstrikes continued their advance towards the strategic "Islamic State" (IS)-controlled city of Manbij on Sunday.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) offensive to seal an IS-held section of the Turkish border and cut off the extremist group's de-facto capital Raqqa hinges on taking Manbij, a city on the west side of the Euphrates that acts as a major transit point for IS fighters and supplies.

The SDF advanced to within eight kilometers of Manbij and captured the Raqqa-Manbij road on Sunday after taking dozens of villages west of the Euphrates in the past days, ANHA news agency, which is close to the Syrian Kurds, reported.

http://www.dw.com/en/us-backed-syrian-alliance-assad-regime-make-gains-against-islamic-state/a-19307724

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1. US-backed Syrian rebels within five kilometres of IS stronghold

US-backed Syrian rebels advancing on Islamic State group fighters in the strategic northern town of Manbij have progressed to within five kilometres of the IS bastion, a monitor said on Sunday.

Supported by air strikes by the US-led coalition battling IS in Syria and Iraq, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias launched an assault last week on Manbij.

On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF was within five kilometres of Manbij, located along a route connecting Raqqa - IS's de facto Syrian capital - to the Turkish border, a vital conduit for supplies and foreign fighters.

Last week, sources told Middle East Eye contributor Wladimir van Wilgenburg that the town could fall as early as this week.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-backed-syrian-rebels-advance-bastion-1209457082

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2. US-backed Syrian fighters advance on IS bastion

US-backed Syrian fighters advancing on the Islamic State group in the strategic northern town of Manbij have progressed to within five kilometres (three miles) of the jihadist bastion, a monitor said Sunday.

Supported by air strikes by the US-led coalition battling IS in Syria and Iraq, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias launched an assault last week on Manbij.

"The Syrian Democratic Forces are now within about five kilometres of the strategic city of Manbij," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

Manbij is located along a route connecting Raqa -- the IS group's de facto capital in Syria -- to the Turkish border, a vital conduit for supplies and foreign fighters.

https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/us-backed-syrian-fighters-advance-bastion

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3. Syrian and Russian war jets step up bombing of Aleppo city - monitor

AMMAN, June 5 (Reuters) - Nearly 40 strikes hit rebel-held areas in and around Syria's Aleppo city on Sunday in some of the heaviest recent raids by Russian and Syrian government war-planes, residents and a monitor said.

Rebels also hit government-held parts of the city in what Syrian media said was an escalation in mortar attacks on the western parts of the country's largest city before the war.

State media said missiles fired on Hamadaniyah and the Midan areas by insurgents left scores injured and several casualties in a second day of intense shelling of government held areas which left at least 24 dead on Saturday

The Syrian Observatory for Human rights said dozens of barrel bombs - oil drums or cylinders packed with explosives and shrapnel- were dropped by military helicopters on the heavy populated al Qatriji neighbourhood.

http://news.trust.org/item/20160605103722-cigmf/?source=fiHeadlineStory

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4. . nt

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5. Is Russia readying for the kill in Syria?

Russia may be preparing to back a renewed assault by Syrian government forces to retake Aleppo, and perhaps even Raqqa, from Jabhat al-Nusra and allied groups in the coming weeks.

Mohammad Ballout wrote, in Al-Monitor's partner publication As-Safir, “The Russians will put their Sukhoi fighter jets to the test and bet on direct ground offensives to weaken rather than defeat Syrian armed factions. It should be noted that isolating Jabhat al-Nusra from other armed factions, which is a difficult and complicated objective, would strike a painful blow to those factions since Jabhat al-Nusra’s military and ideological might form the backbone around which those factions unite.”

Officials in Moscow have made no secret of their intention to target Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, as well as those groups that have sought to make tactical alliance with it, such as Ahrar al-Sham. Russia has offered a pause in its bombing campaign for groups such as Ahrar al-Sham to distance themselves from Jabhat al-Nusra, but it seems so far to no avail, as Ahrar al-Sham, in particular, has continued its collaboration with Jabhat al-Nusra.

The United States has found itself conflicted between, on the one hand, its partnership with Russia, which has led to an unprecedented — if fragile — cessation of hostilities and renewed — if tentative — intra-Syrian talks, and on the other hand its regional partners, which are loath to rein in their proxies with President Bashar al-Assad still in power, even if those proxies run with Jabhat al-Nusra.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/06/russia-syria-nusra-aleppo-qaeda-ypg-us-jihadi.html